Be it road widening, construction of flyover, or strengthening an existing road, a host of issues seem to threaten timely execution of the projects and demand focus on better co-ordination among departments.

According to officials in the Highways Department, the main challenge they face is land acquisition. “It is difficult to take up a project with nil land acquisition. What we try to do now is minimise the acquisition requirement,” says an official.

Highways Secretary held a meeting recently and spoke to the DROs requesting them to expedite land acquisition. “We hope things to move fast now,” said another.

Only after land acquisition is completed can the utility lines be shifted. Though the process is quicker now, sometimes shifting of electricity poles takes even a year, said one of the officials.

Steps are taken to ensure that works are not stopped because of any of these challenges. But, there are projects that wait for completion for years. The officials need to have better co-ordination with each other to ensure that the works go on smoothly, the sources said.

Each department focuses on its priority. Even fixing price for land acquisition takes time. The system needs to be modified so that all the co-ordination works are completed at the earliest and the works can take off and proceed without any hitch. It is the public who are affected and leads to agitations, says K. Kathirmathiyon, secretary of Coimbatore Consumer Cause.

The public are concerned because they do not know how long they need to wait to get compensation for the land acquired and how much they will get. The officials concerned should understand the predicament of the people who are affected by a project. Even if the government releases funds, there is a delay in disbursing it to the affected people. The inconvenience should be minimised, there should be a guaranteed time line for completing land acquisition.

Revisiting the entire procedure for a project to take off and co-ordination among departments are a must. Otherwise, projects remain on paper and even if executed, the public are unable to enjoy the full benefits of the work, he said.