E-Paper
Revival hope for Greenfield Project as Mohali admn sends revised compensation rates to NHAI
The 32-kilometre road, from IT Chowk (PR-7) near Chandigarh International Airport to the Kurali-Chandigarh road, is being constructed at a cost of ₹700 crore. Once complete, it will help ease traffic in Chandigarh and Zirakpur by serving as an alternative route for those from Delhi heading towards Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
Seven months after the ambitious Greenfield Project, aimed at decongesting the Airport Road in Mohali, was put on hold over compensation disputes, the district administration has sent revised rates to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for approval. The administration is positive about a green signal from the Authority.
The 32-kilometre road, from IT Chowk (PR-7) near Chandigarh International Airport to the Kurali-Chandigarh road, is being constructed at a cost of ₹700 crore. Once complete, it will help ease traffic in Chandigarh and Zirakpur by serving as an alternative route for those from Delhi heading towards Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.
Rate enhancement
While earlier, the NHAI was to pay between ₹24 lakh and ₹4.12 crore per acre, depending on the location, it is said to have agreed to pay between ₹1 crore and ₹1.12 crore per acre to those who were to get ₹24 lakh per acre. It had released ₹450 crore to acquire 450 acres in 28 villages and the district revenue officer has already disbursed ₹80 crore compensation to farmers of around 10 villages.
Mohali district revenue officer (DRO) Gurdev Singh said that in villages where the compensation rate was around ₹25 lakh per acre, the administration has revised the rate to more than a crore and sent to NHAI for approval. “We are hopeful of getting approval within a week’s time,” he said.
A senior NHAI official, privy to the developments, said, “We want farmers to come forward and take their compensation which is already lying with the department. As far as revised compensation of some villages is concerned, the authority is looking into it.”
The project
NHAI had come up with the Greenfield Project after scrapping the 40-km Kharar-Banur-Tepla road project in July 2019, owing to its high cost. However, in September last year, the project was put on hold. Recently, Member of Parliament Manish Tewari had taken up the matter with Union minister Nitin Gadkari and urged him to expedite the project as it will help in decongesting the traffic of Mohali.
