No transport nagar, says Ghaziabad authority after land issue reaches HC

The officials of the authority’s law department said nearly 110 farmers from Basantpur Sainthli and Duhai villages near erstwhile NH-58 had moved court. On Wednesday, their pleas challenging the acquisition, were admitted.

The Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) on Wednesday said the transport nagar project will not materialise as farmers have challenged the 2012-13 land acquisition by the GDA at Allahabad high court and the petitions have been admitted.

The GDA officials said the farmers' petition challenging the land acquisition for transport nagar was admitted by the Allahabad high court on Wednesday. (Sakib Ali /HT Photo)

The officials of the authority’s law department said nearly 110 farmers from Basantpur Sainthli and Duhai villages near erstwhile NH-58 had moved court. On Wednesday, their pleas challenging the acquisition, were admitted.

The project, estimated to cost nearly Rs 800 crore on account of land acquisition, was conceived by the GDA for relocating transporters from the city limits.

“The court allowed the petitions by farmers on Wednesday. This means that the acquisition will be scrapped. However, during a previous board meeting, the authority had already decided that the project will not be carried forward. As of now, we don’t intend to develop the project,” said RP Pandey, officer on special duty, GDA.

The project involved acquisition of nearly 123 acres belonging to farmers. Of this, the authority had initiated a process for acquiring 100 acres, including invoking of the urgency clause provisions.

“We had earlier deposited nearly Rs 200 crore - 250 crore with the district collector on account of compensation to be paid under the scheme. We will now be able to get the refund of the amount, which can be used for other projects,” Pandey said.

The transport nagar project was conceived to move truckers out of city limits in order to ease roadside parking. Presently, a majority of transporters have their offices in city and their vehicles are parked on roadsides, leading to congestion.

Apart from this, the city also has several industrial areas and sees an influx of trucks and other commercial vehicles.

The GDA officials said the land acquisition cost was estimated at Rs 800 crore and the project was not feasible. So, the decision not to go ahead with the project was taken during a board meeting held last December.

The decision to scrap the project was taken bearing in mind the revised cost of Rs 1000 crore the GDA has to pay to farmers for 281 acres acquired under the Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme.

The Supreme Court in November had ordered that farmers who challenged the 2004 land acquisition for Madhuban Bapudham housing scheme should be paid up under the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation & Resettlement Act-2013.