The high cost of land acquisition has escalated the expenditure for four-laning of the Parwanoo-Solan-Shimla National Highway-5, with as much as Rs 101.58 crore being spent per km on the final 27-km stretch from Kaithlighat to Dhalli.The 88.9-km Parwanoo-Shimla four-laning project is being executed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). It is expected to cut down the travel time by over an hour, while reducing the distance by 17 kms.The project is being implemented in four packages with the 39-km Parwanoo-Solan stretch having been completed in April 2021, while 91 per cent work on the subsequent Solan-Kaithlighat section is through though key works like completing a viaduct bridge and a tunnel at Kandaghat are underway.The project has failed to meet deadline due to slew of reasons like delay in land acquisition and the onset of rainy season.The cost of four-laning the highway has been the lowest for the Parwanoo-Solan section, where merely Rs 43.16 crore has been spent per km. The stretch was sanctioned for Rs 1,683.31 crore and includes the cost of highway construction, besides land acquisition. An additional Rs 256 crore has, however, been incurred on executing various need-based works like constructing viaduct bridges, which were outside the scope of the original project. Though the work began in September 2015 and was to end in 30 months, it took 60 months for completion.While delays have added to the cost, per km expenditure has gone up to Rs 66.35 crore for the subsequent 22.9-km Solan-Kaithlighat stretch. It was sanctioned for Rs 1,519.53 crore and 91 per cent work had been accomplished. An additional Rs 81 crore is being incurred on undertaking slope protection work at two sites after the unprotected hills continued to erode with every rain.The four-laning of the 27-km Shimla bypass package from Kaithlighat to Shakral-Dhalli has proved to be the costliest stretch of the entire highway. While the project involves investment of about Rs 2,742.91 crore, its per km cost is a whopping Rs 101.59 crore. The section has achieved 53 per cent physical progress so far.Anand Dahiya, Project Director, NHAI, Shimla, said the high cost of land acquisition had pushed up the cost of the project on the Dhalli-Shimla section. He added that an amount of about Rs 250 crore was stuck in arbitration against the exorbitant land award.