Bhoomi Rashi portal was designed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highway under the able leadership of the Government of India. It is proposed to be a single-point platform for the online processing of land acquisition notifications that will accelerate highway infrastructure development projects in India.
Transparency compiled within the portal will benefit farmers, contractors, landowners, investors and will also fast-track the process which will result in more than great benefits for the stakeholders.
Why are land acquisitions important and are early challenges faced by them?
National Highway Authority of India the National Highway and Infrastructure Development Company Limited and the State PWDs are various agencies that have executed projects and are engaged in developing India’s road infrastructure sector under the able leadership of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The sole objective behind all this is to fast-track economic growth, which will result in better road connectivity and focus on the upgradation and expansion of the national highways network via engineering and transformation of current processes and procedures.
Construction of highways and alignment plants are only put in place after the land acquisition is approved. Once the land acquisition is completed, a new agent of the state government is appointed for each National Highway project. He or she is responsible for taking physical possession of the land and ensuring disbursement of compensation to each affected slash interested party.
In earlier stages, the challenge to face was the availability of plants. It was a major bottleneck and was time-consuming along with a lack of transparency. The delayed costs were paid out of the pocket of the National Highways Act. The funds used for the entire project were parked inside the CALA pockets for a long time and resulted in delayed projects.
Features of the project
- Preparation of land interface acquisition locations.
- Provision of an interface for objections, processing, compensation, landowners affected parties, report generation, generation of notifications, land details, 3A 3b, and 3D notifications also.
How is the Bhoomi Rashi portal forward-looking?
The portal was made operational on the 1st of April 2018 and within five months, 850 land acquisition proposals were processed through the same. It has also opened up new opportunities which enhance the efficiency of the land acquisition process. The earlier case where physical processing of deeds took place for a prolonged period of months. The current period for the procession of the same is between a few days and two weeks at a maximum. Since its integration with the public finance management system of the ministry of finance, the deposition of compensation in the account of the effective interested person happens on a real-time basis. The first successful actual payment regarding the affected party through the PFMS took place in the state of Rajasthan.
In short, Bhoomi Rashi’s aim is the automation of land acquisition processes, especially for National Highway Projects. This will develop into a comprehensive portal which is the answer to all bottlenecks that are offered by physical processes of the past.
