NEW DELHI: Several states on Tuesday sought financial assistance from the Centre to run their public bus services under STUs, which are facing bigger financial crisis due to lockdown. They also urged the Centre to allow inter-state movement of labourers and help resolve issues involving more than two states.In a video conference with Union minister Nitin Gadkari that lasted for over four hours, many of the states said the State Transport Undertakings (STUs) are staring at steep revenue fall as no bus will be allowed to carry more than 40-50% of their capacity to maintain social distancing for months.“Most of the ministers talked the financial crisis. One state said it may face difficulty to pay salary to its employees,” said a source.While Gadkari urged the states to clear bottlenecks for free movement of trucks at inter-state borders, state ministers suggested the setting up of a central control room in the ministry to deal with transport related issues. Agreeing to the suggestion, Gadkari said his ministry will start a helpline quickly.“All the states committed to support expeditious construction of highways to create employment. They said there should be no glitches in the movement of man and materials for carrying out works,” said a source.Stating that road construction is being given the top priority Gadkari urged states to expedite land acquisition and urged them to utilise nearly Rs 25,000 crore meant for land acquisition which is lying unused. This amount is lying with the land acquisition officers in 24 states.The states which have maximum unutilised amount are Uttar Pradesh (Rs 4,847 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 4,690 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 2,425 crore) and Karnataka (Rs 2,083 crore). Rajasthan, Haryana and Bihar have such funds ranging between Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 1,975 crore.The highway ministry also made a presentation showing how nearly 61% of the ongoing projects are delayed. Out of 49,238 kms under progress involving investment of Rs 5.9 lakh crore, nearly 30,301 km with total cost of around Rs 3.06 lakh crore face time overrun. Non-availability of land is the main reasons for delays.