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Shorter route to Chandigarh airport: After guv’s approval, land acquisition on fast track
Chandigarh admn to start issuing acquisition notices to land owners; process expected to take 1.5 years, says UT adviser
With Punjab governor and UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit’s according his in-principle approval, the UT administration will soon begin the process to acquire 39 acres in Chandigarh for construction of the long-anticipated shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali.
The UT administration will spend ₹106.69 crore to acquire 39.6 acres, which include 6.6 acres of leftover land falling between the proposed 60 metre right-of-way road and the UT/Punjab boundary.
“As we have received the in-principle approval, the UT administration will now start issuing notices to land owners under the land acquisition policy. The acquisition process will take around 1.5 years to get completed. This is UT’s ambitious project and work has begun in full swing to cut short the distance to the airport,” said UT adviser Dharam Pal.
The cost of land acquisition has been worked out based on the tentative cost that was provided by the land acquisition officer (LAO), an official privy to the matter said, adding that the list of khasra numbers that were required for acquisition had also been worked out on the basis of the details given by the LAO.
The working permission of the Union ministry of defence has been received for permanent transfer of defence land measuring 0.98 acre to Chandigarh.
“Also, the Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHIAL) has accorded approval to the proposal for construction of a road covering around 1.1 km within their premises at their own level. However, a decision regarding the execution and expenditure thereof is to be taken by CHAIL,” said the official.
Officials also said the railways had chalked out a detailed plan for a railway under bridge (RUB) connecting Vikas Marg with the new road.
To speed up the project, Punjab will also soon start the process to acquire 14 acres and hand over the land to Chandigarh for construction of the proposed road.
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 shorter route being planned will be 60 metres wide, with three main carriageways, two service lanes and 2-metre-wide cycle tracks on both sides.
A total of 51 acres needs to be acquired for the project of which 39 acres fall in Chandigarh and the remaining 12 acres in Punjab’s Jagatpura and Khandala villages.
But Punjab, for years, had been refusing to foot the land acquisition cost, especially as the Mohali Master Plan already includes an alternative 164-foot-wide route to the airport via Sector 66-A.
At the last meeting on May 22, Punjab’s chief secretary VK Janjua had said Punjab was ready to acquire the required land falling in Mohali, but the ₹50-crore compensation involved needed to be taken up with the chief minister. The chief secretary had shared that the Punjab government had given its in-principal approval for acquiring the land.
Other stakeholders, including the ministry of defence, ministry of railways, air force authorities and CHIAL had given their nod to Chandigarh’s proposal on May 12.
