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Chandigarh: Shorter route to airport hits slow lane ahead of Lok Sabha polls
Chandigarh administration officials say project will be delayed as the Union ministry of home affairs is unlikely to approve it due to the model code of conduct
Already stuck in limbo due to the deadlock with landowners over land acquisition, the shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali is set to be delayed further owing to the Lok Sabha elections.
The UT administration, in the last week of January, had sent the project file to the Union ministry of home affairs for approval, as all projects estimated to be over ₹100 crore need Centre’s clearance.
However, the ministry is not likely to take up the matter before Lok Sabha polls, expected to be held in April or May this year.
“The model code of conduct is imposed before the Lok Sabha polls, stalling any new development projects. Thus, we are expecting the ministry will approve the project only after the Lok Sabha polls,” a senior officer of the UT administration said.
According to UT chief engineer CB Ojha, once the project gets the ministry’s go-ahead, the land acquisition process with take around seven to eight months, before construction work can begin.
Deadlock prevails over land acquisition
Currently, land owners are engaged in an impasse with the UT administration over the land acquisition process.
In November last year, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had given the green light to complete the process through UT’s Negotiation Policy of 2018.
Following this, the UT administration had issued a notification offering a compensation ranging from ₹2.54 crore to ₹3.34 crore per acre to landowners for the acquisition.
However, landowners have rejected the policy. They are instead demanding that land be acquired either through the land pooling policy of Punjab or Haryana or through the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act, 2013.
Compared to one-time monetary compensation through UT’s Negotiation Policy, land pooling scheme offers owners residential or commercial plots in exchange for their land, while under the 2013 Act, landowners are paid based on the prevalent collector rate, along with a job for one person in the family.
As per the UT notification issued on January 15, under its Negotiation Policy, compensation for the land, structures, and trees will be paid within six months from the date of receiving consent from the concerned landowners. In case of a delay of more than six months in reaching a consensus on the rates, 6% simple interest will be paid on the compensation amount until the actual payments are made, as stated in the notification.
A total of 51 acres need to be acquired for the project of which 39.6 acres fall in Chandigarh and the remaining 12 acres in Punjab’s Jagatpura and Khandala villages.
A total of 34.61 acres will be acquired in Chandigarh through acquisition. This includes 11.88 acres in Burail and 22.73 acres in Char Taraf Burail.
Further, 3.76 acres of defence land in these revenue estates will be transferred by the Union ministry of defence.
New road to cut travel time to five minutes
The UT administration is planning the shorter route from near Sector 48. The new road will start from the T-point intersection of Vikas Marg (coming from Sector-43 ISBT) and Purv Marg (coming from Tribune Chowk).
The current distance from this intersection to the airport is 11.5 km after traversing through Mohali. The shorter route will reduce this to around 3.5 km, thereby bringing the travel time down from 25 minutes to 5 minutes.
The planned shorter route will be 60-metre-wide, with three main carriageways, two service lanes and 2-metre-wide cycle tracks on both sides.
GMADA floats tender for another shorter route to airport
The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), which is working on another shorter route to the airport, via Sector 66-A, on Tuesday floated tenders for the construction work. The last date for placing bids is March 6, 2024. The work is expected to begin in April this year.
The 164-foot-wide road is a crucial component of the Mohali Master Plan. The around 5-km stretch will allow commuters from Chandigarh and Mohali to head to the airport via the road in front of Bawa White House, instead of taking the longer route via Airport Road. This will bring down the 18km distance from Tribune Chowk, Chandigarh, to the airport in Mohali by more than 5 km.
At present, commuters have to head all the way to the T-junction near the Indian School of Business, after passing by Bawa White House, to turn left towards Airport Chowk, where they again have to turn left towards the airport.
