Farmer protest hits work on ring expressway to decongest Delhi

Farmers have denied officials of Oriental Structural Engineers Limited access to their farms, tubewells and other sources from where soil and water was being used for the project. The company is responsible for the construction of a part of the eway.

The work on Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressway has been hit as farmers at Sahajapur village in Faridabad have intensified protests demanding a separate road to connect their farms.

The Kundli-Ghaziabad-Palwal Expressway along with the KMP(Kundali Manesar Palwal) Expressway (above) will form a ring road around Delhi which heavy trucks and other vehicles can use to bypass Delhi.

Farmers have denied officials of Oriental Structural Engineers Limited access to their farms, tubewells and other sources from where soil and water was being used for the project. The company is responsible for the construction of a part of the eway.

The National Highways Authority of India has now approached the district administration for mediation.

Though the villagers were on a sit-in in Sahajapur since October, the farmers stopped the constructing company from using water and soil from their farmlands for the project, which includes a 600-metre bridge on Yamuna on Monday. The protest continued on Tuesday.

“NHAI is laying Eastern Peripheral Expressway connecting Palwal with Kundli via Ghaziabad in which our land also was acquired without looking into our concerns”, said Bikram Singh, a farmer.

“Our farmland is spread across Yamuna. After this expressway is completed, it will be difficult for us to reach our agricultural land for cultivation as under the current plan there is no provision for a separate way,” Suraj Pal Bhura, member of Kisan Sangarsh Samiti.

The farmers had reportedly met and raised the demand before outgoing NHAI chairman Raghav Chandra when he visited the area to oversee the progress of the project in July 13. Villagers said their demands have, however, been ignored.

“The district administration is in the know of the development in the last two days,” said Kishore Kanyal, project director of the 135-km-long KGP.

The National Expressway 2, also known as the Eastern Peripheral Expressway is designed to connect Kundli in Haryana to Palwal in Haryana via Ghaziabad.

The route would by-pass Delhi on the eastern side and go through Haryana and Uttar Pradesh crossing the districts of Sonipat, Faridabad, Baghpat, Gaziabad, and Gautam Budh Nagar.

The foundation stone for the project was laid in November 2015 but work took off in February 2016. The deadline for the project is July 2018.