The matter will come up for discussion at the annual general meeting of the Indian Roads Congress that will be held in the city from 13 to 16 December this year.
Mr Goswami said the beneficiary fee would be useful when the state government decides to undertake road repair work in the future.

He further proposed that discussion be held regarding issues of compensating land losers in case of highway widening and extension projects. Extension of the NH-34 along Nadia and Murshidabad has already been held up due to land acquisition problems.

Pointing out to the Highway Act, the minister said that the Act speaks of compensating land losers, but the amount of compensation is not based on the character of land acquired.
"I have seen in Punjab that a substantial compensation is paid for acquiring land for highway projects. But the land there is fallow. However, in West Bengal, we have multi-crop land. Hence an appropriate compensation has to be decided upon before we acquire land here," Mr Goswami said.

Assuring that the state government will not implement provisions of the Highway Act to forcibly acquire land for highway projects, he said that the situation in the state is such that there will be backlash if land is forcibly acquired.