Ludhiana-Bathinda expressway awaits land to take off

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, October 5

Land acquisition is becoming a big hurdle in the construction of major highway and expressway projects in Ludhiana district.

The Ludhiana-Bathinda greenfield expressway is another such big ticket project, which awaits land to take off the construction, officials said.

A total of 231.79 hectares of land was required to build the 45.24-km stretch of the expressway in the jurisdiction of Ludhiana district.

Deputy Commissioner Surabhi Malik said the district administration was in the process to complete the ongoing acquisition of land for the Central project on a priority basis.

She said a sum of Rs 281.96 crore had been awarded for the acquisition of land, of which Rs 34.64 crore had already been disbursed, which accounted for 12.28 per cent of the total award.

However, the physical possession of only 2.65 per cent of the total land under acquisition could be taken so far due to the stiff resistance from farmers.

This was despite the fact that the work of six-lane 75.543-km Ludhiana-Bathinda national highway had already been allotted to two separate construction companies.

While the phase 1 of the 30.3-km-long greenfield expressway had been allotted to Ram Kumar contractor, the second part comprising the 45.243-km stretch on the NH-754-AD had been allotted to Ceigall India Ltd.

The six-lane access-controlled highway will connect Ballowal village on the Delhi-Amritsar expressway with Rampura Phul on the Amritsar-Bathinda expressway.

Once constructed, the drive from Ludhiana to Bathinda will become smoother and faster as the project entails six-laning of the 75.543-km-long national highway 754-AD at the cost of Rs 1,716.17 crore.

The part of Ludhiana-Ajmer economic corridor (EC-8) will be completed in 24 months under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase 1.

The widening and strengthening of the highway has been taken up by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) in two parts under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) mode.

The first component of the NH-754-AD will comprise 30.3-km while the second part will run into a 45.243-km stretch. The civil cost of the project has been estimated at 1,596.3 crore, including Rs 639.07 crore for first part and Rs 957.23 crore for the second component, while Rs 119.87 crore was earmarked for the land acquisition.

The 30.3-km-long first package of this six-lane access controlled greenfield highway will begin from junction with Amritsar-Bathinda NH-754-A near Tallewal village at Rampura Phul in Bathinda while the second 45.243-km stretch from junction with Moga-Barnala NH-703 will connect with Delhi-Katra expressway (NE-5) at Ballowal village in Ludhiana.

The new Ludhiana-Bathinda expressway will pass through 36 villages falling in 3 districts of Ludhiana under Ludhiana and Raikot tehsils, Barnala under Barnala and Tapa tehsils and Rampura Phul tehsil in Bathinda district.

Land acquisition soon

We will complete the land acquisition for the project soon to pave the way for the construction of the expressway. The district administration has taken up the work on a priority basis. — Surabhi Malik, Deputy Commissioner

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