Union Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Sarvey Sathyanarayana has said that as many as 18 highway projects awarded in 2011-12 have not received financial closure, mainly due to non-availability of funds with the financial institutions. Out of the 32 national highway projects awarded during 2011-12, 18 projects have not succeeded in obtaining the financial closure, Sathyanarayana said.    

The Minister said this in the Lok Sabha on March 18 that there has been slowdown due to lack of equity with the concessionaires, unavailability of debt with the financial institutions and stringent stipulation introduced by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.    

Satyanarayana said that non-availability of aggregate funds and imposition of conditional ban on digging earth has created additional problems. This is in addition to the existing issues of land acquisition and utility shifting.