Court orders GMADA to vacate excess land taken for Airport Road

In a classic case, an excess piece of land was taken by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) for the construction of a 200-ft-wide road, commonly known as Airport Road, which leads to the Chandigarh international airport in Mohali. The court has now ordered vacation of the land.

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The state government had acquired land in June 2008 for the road and the acquisition proceedings were completed in June next year with the award of compensation to the landowners, ranging from Rs 5-10 crore, depending upon the condition and location of the acquired land.

What next

Senior lawyer Rajesh Gupta said GMADA cannot forcibly acquire the excess land and can only purchase it from the farmer, if the latter agrees, otherwise he will move court after four months to get warrants of possession of his land, which can create obstruction in the present alignment of the road.

Two bighas and 12 biswas (almost 0.65 acre) of Narata Singh, a resident of Nadiali village in Mohali, were also acquired. However, during the construction of Airport Road in 2015, his 22 biswas of excess land were also used under the project.

Realising the loss of their excess land, his son Rulda Singh (since his father had died in 2015) ran from pillar to post to either get their land back or compensation for the same, but to no avail.

Major road

The 200-ft-wide road connecting Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali, commonly known as Airport Road, is part of PR-7 and acts as a major link between Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula and other areas of the region.

After exhausting all other options, the farmer moved a Mohali court in January 2017 to seek justice.

It took over eight years for the court to decide the matter and during the course of litigation, Rulda also died following which his son Devinder Singh fought the legal battle.

Senior lawyer Rajesh Gupta, who represented the landowner, told The Tribune on Thursday that the court has finally ordered in his favour by ordering the removal of encroachment (term used by the court) within four months.

“In view of the findings recorded under issues, the suit of plaintiffs partly succeeds and is hereby partly decreed with costs to the effect that defendants shall remove their encroachment over 22 biswas within four months from the date of order, failing which the plaintiffs shall have each and every right to get the said encroachment removed through the process of law,” ordered Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) Manpreet Kaur.

During the course of proceedings, GMADA officials submitted that the petitioner’s 2 bigha 12 biswa of land was acquired for the Airport Road project, for which compensation of Rs 5.19 crore was paid to him. They admitted that excess land had been used for the project and the Land Acquisition Collector had been requested to initiate acquisition proceedings for the said excess area.

However, the court passed a decree in favour of the farmer.

Poor quality

Built at a cost of over Rs 1,500-crore under the then SAD-BJP regime, the 17.5-km Airport Road claimed many lives and became virtually non-motorable in less than 2 years of its construction.

Taking note of the alleged widespread corruption, the then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, had in 2017, not only ordered a Vigilance probe into its construction but also constituted a four-member expert committee to suggest urgent remedial measures for the severely damaged 6-km killer stretch from Airport Chowk to the Landran-Banur road T-Point following a series of fatal accidents and after finding the road to be beyond repairs.

It was one of the major projects undertaken by the tainted former GMADA chief engineer, Surinder Pal Singh, alias Pehalwan, who later faced cases of alleged corruption and disproportionate assets.