Ghaziabad: Villagers on periphery of upcoming e-way seek service lanes

The project was envisaged for signal-free movement among Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal. Around 24.5 kilometres of the project fall in Ghaziabad, but the work was often stalled by farmers.

A delegation of farmers whose land was acquired for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) project met the district magistrate (DM) and National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials on Wednesday and requested them to provide a service lane on both sides of the under-construction expressway.

According to official estimates, nearly Rs402 crore is still yet to be distributed for land acquired in the EPE, Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the dedicated freight corridor projects. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

The EPE project was envisaged for signal-free movement among Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal. Around 24.5 kilometres of the project fall in Ghaziabad, but the work was often stalled by farmers.

The delegation of farmers said that a service lane is needed on both sides of the expressway. “We have put forward our long-standing demand, yet again. The service lane is needed for better connectivity to nearly 50 villages around the project. Further, we demanded that the pending cases regarding compensation with the district judge and also those pending before the court of the district magistrate be expedited,” said Salek Bhaiya, a farmer leader.

District magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said that she has written to the top officials of NHAI about the farmers’ demands.

“We will also hold a meeting with NHAI officials to discuss the issue of service lane, among others. They also want a part of their (abadi) area left out and denotified. However, there is no provision for denotification. They have also asked us to look into an issue wherein the land acquired is of different measurement in the document but the development is over a lesser or larger area,” Maheshwari said.

“We have formed a committee to take up the issues so that these do not crop up in the other ongoing projects of Delhi-Meerut Expressway. Further, we are also holding camps soon at tehsil-level to disburse the pending compensation,” she said.

According to official estimates, nearly Rs402 crore is still yet to be distributed for land acquired in the EPE, Delhi-Meerut Expressway and the dedicated freight corridor projects.

Earlier, the apex court had also asked the Uttar Pradesh director general of police to provide security for the construction work of the expressway (EPE) as the work was stopped by farmers. However, the work was resumed later.

The Supreme Court in 2005, while hearing a plea filed by environmentalist MC Mehta in 1985, had asked the Centre to build a peripheral expressway around Delhi by July 2016 to decongest and bring down pollution in the Capital.