In defense of its land acquisition ordinance, which it is now trying to pass as a Bill, the Narendra Modi government has claimed it will unblock a backlog of infrastructure projects worth crores stalled by the Congress-led UPA government's Land Act.
But repeated attempts by NDTV to get a list of the stalled projects from the government yielded no results.
The only list NDTV could access was shared by a top industry body of stalled infrastructure projects worth above Rs 1,000 crores. It reveals that of 67 such projects, only seven - or 10 per cent - are currently stalled or surrendered solely because of land acquisition problems. These projects are together worth Rs 53,677 crore , or 13 percent of the total stalled investment.
"I am not aware of any such list," BJP Spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said.
"If you want empirical evidence, we can let the 2013 bill run for another 10 or 100 years," Mr Rao said, adding, "For any new project even to be mooted, where is the land available?"
Congress leader and spokesperson Salman Soz said the government didn't consult anyone before making changes to the 2013 Land Acquisition Act.
Of the list of seven stalled projects, six are road projects. Two proposed highways in Maharashtra by construction major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) - worth Rs 4,506 crores - were foreclosed earlier this year. The company's other road projects in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan are pending (one of them since 2011) because of land acquisition issues.
Among the four projects that saw some movement last year are L&T's road project in Tamil Nadu and a second Ashoka Buildcon project in Odisha. There has also been some progress in land acquisition for a power plant by Tata in Jharkhand, and another by Lanco in Chhattisgarh.
Delhi Lt Governor Rejects Minister's Report Seeking Official's Suspension Uttar Pradesh Government Notifies Phase 3 Expansion Of Noida Airport Land Acquisition For Cricket Stadium In Varanasi Completed The 'Fake' CrowdStrike Worker Who Crippled Windows Users Worldwide On Sonu Sood's Post About Kanwar Yatra Order, Kangana Ranaut's Rejoinder Woman Dies As Portion Of Mumbai Building Collapses After Heavy Rain 14 Indians Rescued From 'Cyber-Slavery' In Cambodia Wait To Return Home Dawood Declared Terrorist In Individual Capacity, Says Bombay High Court UPSC CSE Prelims 2024: Name And Roll Number-Wise Results Out Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.