Land requirement fulfilled for 12 of 29 ongoing NHAI projects in Punjab

Where there’s a will, there’s a way! This has proved correct in Punjab where the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) projects, which had been stalled for the past couple of years, are now back on track.

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Requisite land has been made available for 12 of the 29 ongoing highway projects in the state. With this, the government has handed over to the NHAI the possession of over 83 per cent of the 1,343-km area required for 36 approved interstate and inter-city corridors.

Of the 12 projects getting the entire requisite land, seven are part of the NHAI’s flagship Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway, the multi-state 669-km four-lane access-controlled corridor with a route alignment connecting Jasaur Kheri in Jhajjar district (Haryana) with Katra, 295.51-km stretch of which passes through Punjab.

This was made possible after the Centre took serious view of the NHAI projects getting stalled for want of land in Punjab and Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari threatening to cancel/withdraw the stalled highway projects.

CM Bhagwant Mann and Chief Secretary Anurag Verma took charge of the contentious matter and pulled all stops to provide acquired land for the construction of highways while engaging with the farmers, who were protesting against what they called as “meagre” compensation for their land.

Sharing details, Chief Secretary Anurag Verma told The Tribune on Monday that packages 6, 8, 9, 10, 5, 14 and Amritsar connectivity spur-1 of the Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway have been provided the required 199.14-km stretch falling in Ludhiana, Patiala, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Gurdaspur and Pathankot districts.

Verma, who has been taking weekly marathon meetings with the deputy commissioners and the district police chiefs for the past almost three months, said the entire 31.23-km stretch for six-lane highway from IT City Chowk to Kurali-Chandigarh road in Mohali district, 43.26-km Ludhiana-Ropar Greenfield NH-205-K package-3 in Ropar and Mohali districts, 27.37-km Sirhind-Mohali highway in Mohali and Fatehgarh Sahib districts, 27.4-km Jodhpur Romana (Bathinda)-Mandi Dabwali highway in Bathinda district and 30.83-km area for Ambala-Chandigarh Greenfield project in Mohali district have also been handed over to the NHAI.

He said the process was underway to clear the remaining 222.2-km stretch, which was 16.54 per cent of the 1,342.85-km land needed for the 36 NHAI projects in the state.