After an eight-month delay, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has finally begun construction work on the Greenfield alignment road, which is expected to ease traffic in Chandigarh and Mohali.
The 32-km road, which leads from IT Chowk near Chandigarh International Airport to the Kurali-Chandigarh Road, will serve as an alternative route for those heading from Delhi towards Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and also decongest Airport Road.
The firm, Ashoka Buildcon Limited, which was awarded the contract, has started levelling land in Rurki, Pukhta, Sahauran and Nagiara villages.
Farmers demand of ₹4 crore per acre, issue ultimatum
Work on the ₹700-crore project had been put on hold due to the farmers’ protest seeking higher land compensation.Though NHAI later approved a four-fold hike in rates, farmers from five villages – Gudana, Dehelpur, Soyemajra, Gigenmajra, and Gobindgarh – are still agitating for better rates. The protesting landowners are demanding a compensation of ₹4 crore per acre on grounds that the highway authority had paid around ₹4.18 crore for land near Nagiari village.
Earlier, NHAI was to pay landowners ₹24 lakh- ₹4.18 crore per acre as per the location, but later increased the starting compensation rate to ₹1 crore- ₹1.09 crore per acre.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, NHAI was to pay landowners ₹24 lakh- ₹4.18 crore per acre as per the location, but later increased the starting compensation rate to ₹1 crore- ₹1.09 crore per acre.
{{/usCountry}}A protester, Jasbir Singh of Gudana village, said, “NHAI has paid ₹4 crore per acre to landowners in Nagiari village.Why the disparity? We have given the district administration till May 30 to convene a meeting with the chief minister, failing which we will stage a protest inside the deputy commissioner’s office,” he said.
‘Road to be ready in a year’
Asserting that the road will ready in a year, Mohali district revenue officer (DRO) Gurdev Singh Dham said, “We have raised the farmers’ demand for higher compensation before Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann. Hopefully, the matter will be sorted out.”
A senior NHAI official, privy to the development, said, “We have started work, but some villagers are still protesting after rate revision, which is unfair. We are waiting for landowners to collect their compensation from the department.”
NHAI had released ₹450 crore for acquiring 450 acre-land spread across 28 villages, of which the district revenue officer has disbursed ₹80 crore to farmers of around 10 villages.
NHAI had come up with the Greenfield Project after scrapping the expensive 40-km Kharar-Banur-Tepla road project in July 2019. MP Manish Tewari had recently urged Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari to expedite the project.