Revamping the land acquisition process for infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka: strategies for streamlining the existing process

Abstract

Land Acquisition (LA) is a process of acquiring lands before constructing infrastructure projects for public purposes. Infrastructure projects often experience delays attributed to prolonged land acquisition processes. Compulsory LA becomes necessary, requiring compensation for the affected parties to mitigate these delays. Hence, various laws and regulations are enacted in different countries including Sri Lanka to ensure the validity of the process. The prolonged LA process raises the grievances of project-affected parties and leads to project delays. This study aims to enhance the existing land acquisition process for Sri Lanka to acquire lands for infrastructure projects. In Sri Lanka Land Acquisition Act, no 9 of 1950 is currently used for LA. Delays in infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka are caused by the problems in LA and those problems were identified through three case studies. Here, expert interviews were conducted with six experts and nine semi-structured interviews with other stakeholders involved in the LA process. The main problem with extending the LA is the time wasted from Section 2 to Section 9. The study recommended that providing technological facilities and establishing grievance readdress committees are the key suggestions. This study contributes to theory by categorising different strategies into short-term, middle-term and long-term bases. It further emphasises the necessity of explicit discussions to change the LA law in Sri Lanka to meet the industry’s needs. Further, this study recommends implementing the suggestions in an action plan to revamp the land acquisition process for infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka.