Patna HC orders removal of encroachment as it reviews state’s NH projects

In March, the high court took over monitoring of all ongoing and upcoming national highway projects and directed the registry to file 35 separate writ petitions for each of them after it came to light that most of the projects were pending for years due to delay in land acquisition

The Patna high court has ordered removal of encroachment from Ramashish Chowk in Hajipur within a day and handover of the vacant land to the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) so that road construction can start at the earliest.

Representational Image. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The bench of chief justice Sanjay Karol and justice Sanjay Kumar passed the order after it was informed during a review of matters related to national highways that neither the bus stand nor the tempo stand on the Chowk had been removed.

In March, the high court took over monitoring of all ongoing and upcoming national highway projects and directed the registry to file 35 separate writ petitions for each of them after it came to light that most of the projects were pending for years due to delay in land acquisition.

While hearing the matter related to Hajipur-Muzaffarpur road, the bench learnt that its orders for removal of encroachment from Ramashish Chowk had not been complied with. The court also directed Muzaffarpur district magistrate that the payment to land owners be made at the earliest and the land be handed over to the NHAI so that the Muzaffarpur bypass could be completed soon.

Regarding the Patna-Bakhtiarpur NH, senior advocate SD Sanjay told the bench that the NHAI has to build drainage alongside the road and service lane and underpass, for which the statement government has to make payment.

The bench told additional advocate general Anjani Kumar Singh to seek information from the state government and apprise the court about it during the next hearing.

“We have to review the progress of the national highways and set timelines as a last resort. We don’t have any desire to review it, but we just want that land acquisition is completed within a stipulated time and handed over to the NHAI. The Centre has to bear all the cost, but the inordinate delay in land acquisition creates hurdles and escalates cost. The state government should open a separate cell to monitor it for removing the bottlenecks so that the time of the court could be saved,” it added.