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Shorter route to airport: Chandigarh admn sends proposal to central govt for approval
“All UT projects estimated to be over ₹100 crore need Centre’s approval. Hence, the file for the shorter route was forwarded to the home ministry on Tuesday after the UT administrator’s nod,” said Chandigarh adviser Nitin Yadav
Amid the deadlock with landowners over land acquisition for the shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali, the UT administration on Tuesday sent the project file to the Union ministry of home affairs for approval.
“All UT projects estimated to be over ₹100 crore need Centre’s approval. Hence, the file for the shorter route was forwarded to the home ministry on Tuesday after the UT administrator’s nod,” said UT adviser Nitin Yadav.
He further said the land acquisition process with take around seven to eight months, following which work will begin.
A week ago, 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. Decided through UT’s Negotiation Policy, the rate for 11.88 acres in Burail is ₹2.54 crore per acre and ₹3.34 crore per acre for 22.73 acres in Char Taraf Burail.
However, rejecting the policy, landowners are 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.
On this, UT adviser Nitin Yadav said, “We opted for the Negotiation Policy to expedite the project. In case some landowners want acquisition through the 2013 Act, we are ready.”
UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had given the green light to complete the process through the Negotiation Policy of 2018 on November 16 last year.
According to the subsequent notification issued on January 15, 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 needs 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 Chandigarh 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.
