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New Act may delay land acquisition: NTPC

September 12: The process that has been recommended in new Land Acquisition Act is likely to delay the process of doing social impact study for obtaining environmental approval for new industrial projects, NTPC Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Arup Roy Choudhury feels.

"We are yet to do a detailed study of the new Act, but the process that has been recommended may take a little longer time to do the social impact study," he said recently in Kolkata.

"As per our preliminary estimate, it will take 48 to 53 months as against 36 earlier for going through the system that has now been proposed under the new Land Acquisition Act," Choudhury said.

He, however, said the role of the state governments under the new Land Acquisition Act will be crucial as the actual acquisition will be done by the state government because and the state government has to be a party in the land acquisition.

"Without state government, there cannot be any land acquisition and in the present Act also it is the state government who has to initiate everything. Land acquisition will be the primary responsibility of the state government," the CMD said.

"We (companies) are totally involved at every stage including in the consultation part of the process. We are involved the social impact study and finalisation of compensation and Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) package. But the final approval and the finalization are going to be done by the state government," he added.

Asked whether there might be any delay in land acquisition for NTPC because of the new act, Choudhury said, "As far as NTPC is concerned, we are already in consultation with the state government at all time, which is known today as Village Development Advisory Committee (VDAC).  It is a tripartite body where Collector, NTPC, Local people representative are member and this consultancy will happen in all the villages before finalizing the land rate and the R&R plan. We are already doing this in all our projects."