E-Paper
Shorter route to Chandigarh airport: Landowners say UT’s negotiation policy not acceptable
Landowners have termed the policy unacceptable, asserting that acquisition should either be 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.
Work on the shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport is set to be delayed as landowners have rejected the Chandigarh administration’s negotiation policy for acquiring land for the long-awaited project.
A week ago, under its negotiation policy, the UT administration had offered a compensation ranging from ₹2.54 crore to ₹3.34 crore per acre to landowners for the acquisition.
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, landowners have termed the policy unacceptable, asserting that acquisition should either be 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.
Mohan Singh, an advocate and landowner, said, “We will be filing the objections before the land acquisition officer in the next couple of days. We want acquisition to be through the 2013 Act.”
On November 16 last year, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had given the approval to complete the acquisition process through negotiation policy, which aims to expedite land acquisition while offering incentives in addition to compensation.
According to the notification issued, compensation for the land, structures and trees will be paid within six months from the date of receiving consent from the landowners concerned. 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.
Joginder Singh, vice-president of Pendu Sangarsh Committee, said, “We want compensation similar to that being offered to Punjab and Haryana farmers on the basis of the 2013 Act.”
However, 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.”
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 meters wide, with three main carriageways, two service lanes, and 2-meter-wide cycle tracks on both sides.
