The Union government is to award Rs 17,000 crore road projects to the private road developers in the next five weeks. The government has set up a special cell to help big road projects for speedy clearances. The Cabinet Committee on Investment is working to remove hindrances in the way of stalled road projects.    The pace of awarding of highway projects has been slow in the last 18 months because of issues like poor market sentiment, shortage of equity, lenders' demand for 100 per cent possession of land, delays in getting clearances, banks reaching their exposure limit towards the infrastructure sector and a ban on quarrying of stones and mining of ordinary earth used in road construction.    Sources in the government said that by October-end, six annuity projects worth Rs 5,784 crore and four toll-based projects worth Rs 11,274 crore will be opened for bidding.    This also includes the Rs 9,654-crore Agra to Lucknow eight-lane expressway project, which will be implemented by the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority (UPEIDA).