Rs 186 cr disbursed for land acquisition

Sukhmeet Bhasin

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, May 20

With the disbursement of Rs 186 crore for land acquisition for the National Highway-15 in the district, the work on the four-laning project is set to start soon.

Land at seven villages has been acquired in the district for the project. Out of Rs 186 crore disbursed in the district, Gill Pati village has been disbursed Rs 136 crore, Harraipur and Amargarh villages — Rs 30 crore, and Goniana Khurd and Goniana Kalan — Rs 12 crore.

This early payments may revive the economic condition of the market in the district.

Bathinda has become the first district to disburse payment in a short time. Land collector-cum-Sub Divisional Magistrate Damanjit Singh Mann, who is heading the project, said the disbursement project was in its last stage and the work on the project would be started soon by the PWD.

He said disbursement of Rs 186 crore was done from May 13 to 19 and the first time payments were made under videography. No complaint regarding it had been received by their office so far, he added. Pending payments will be made from next Monday to Thursday.

The Public Works Department (PWD) is also gearing up to initiate work on the four-laning of NH-15 allotted to it by the Union Ministry for Road Transport and Highways.

It is Bathinda-Amritsar national highway via Jeeda-Bajakhana-Kotkapura-Mudki-Tarntaran-Verka.

The department had completed most of the paper work and the process is in last stage of acquiring land for widening the 175-km-long Bathinda-Amritsar highway, a project worth Rs 1,900 crore.

All mandatory clearances from the authorities concerned at the Centre have been approved. The project will have a bypass at Nehurashara Pannua, Zira, Harike, Talwandi and Kotkapura.

The widening of the highway is planned in such a manner that it will actually become an expressway. There will be flyovers, railway over-bridges (ROBs) and bypasses to overcome traffic bottlenecks and the project will be toll-based and constructed under the public private partnership (PPP) mode, a PWD official said.

Most of the highways are constructed under the supervision of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). However, in Punjab, the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, has allocated some highways to the PWD.