Project approval, environmental issues and land acquisition have been major hurdles for long. Infrastructure projects have contended with these since last couple of years. Notwithstanding the resultant delays and cost escalations, the government has articulated ambitious plans. Building 20 kilometres of roadways a day was just one of them. But it seems a late realization has dawned upon the government regarding another issue. Public private partnership plans for funding large infra projects have made no headway. Banks have backed off from many of these projects due to asset liability mismatches. Infrastructure funding companies too are very selective. Hence many projects are at the mercy of private equity funds. There too raising equity has not been easy for most players.

NHAI in particular has highlighted this problem in road building projects. The body managed to award just 1,000 km of roadway contracts this financial year. This was against a target of 9,500 kms. But there too firms have exited citing lack of funds. Hence '20 kilometres of roadways a day' is a distant dream for India for the time being.