The department shall also have power to make reasonable regulations for the installation, construction, maintenance, repair, renewal, relocation and removal of tracks, pipes, mains, conduits, cables, wires, towers, poles and other equipment and appliances herein called “public utility facilities” of any public utility as defined in section 48:2-13 of the Revised Statutes, in, on, along, over or under any project. Whenever the department shall determine that it is necessary that any such public utility facilities which now are, or hereafter may be, located in, on, along, over or under any project, should be relocated, or should be removed from such project, the public utility owning or operating such facilities shall relocate or remove the same in accordance with the order of the department; provided, however, that the cost and expenses of such relocation or removal, including the cost of installing such facilities in a new location, or new locations, and the cost of any lands, or any rights or interest in lands, and any other rights acquired to accomplish such relocation or removal, less the cost of any lands or any rights or interests in lands or any other rights of the public utility paid to the public utility in connection with the relocation or removal of such property, shall be ascertained and paid by the department as a part of the cost of such project. In case of any such relocation or removal of facilities, as aforesaid, the public utility owning or operating the same, its successors or assigns, may maintain and operate such facilities, with the necessary appurtenances, in the new location or new locations, for as long a period, and upon the same terms and conditions, as it had the right to maintain and operate such facilities in their former location or locations. L.1958, c. 34, p. 106, s. 14.