The Narendra Modi and the Yogi Governments have got down to sort out the contentious land acquisition issues involving 1,800 hectares in Uttar Pradesh.
The acquisition bottleneck has impacted works of around 50 national highway (NH) projects, many of which come under VVIP constituencies, like that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Varanasi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s Gorakhpur, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh’s Azamgarh, and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s lucknow.
A sharp mismatch in circle rates of the land falling within these constituencies with adjoining ones is the main reasons for the delay in land acquisition despite the Centre earmarking Rs6,400 crore as compensation to the displaced.
Both the Centre and State Governments have already held one meeting in this regard and the second one is scheduled next week to pave the way for the construction of NH stretches — including Varanasi-Gorakhpur, lucknow Ring Road, and Varanasi Ring Road among others.
A senior Road Ministry official said Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has written to the UP CM to expedite the pending projects and disburse to farmers the pending compensation against the acquisition. On his part, the UP CM has acted swiftly to remove the hurdles.
“The CM immediately summoned all the Administrative Heads (Collectors) of the districts where works remain stuck and directed to sort out the problem within a month’s time. They have also been allowed to change the land use wherever possible with State gazette notifications. We are hopeful that in another fortnight problem areas will be resolved and work will begin on NHs in the state, “ said the official.
Pointing out the problem the Centre faces in the disbursement of compensation, the official said circle rates in Azamgarh, represented by
Mulayam Singh, was higher than the adjoining districts like Ghazipur, represented by Union Minister Manoj Sinha, and other districts like Jaunpur, Mau, and Varanasi.
The other projects which are stuck include all the NHs leading to lucknow from Meerut, Mathura, Agra, Aligarh, Moradabad, and Bareilly.
Among the others, affected projects are lucknow Ring Road, and 42 kilometer Varanasi Ring Road under the NHDP programme. The list goes also covers portions of 180 kms Delhi Agra, Agra - Etawah, Ghaziabad- Aligarh, Moradabad-Barielly and Bareilly-Sitapur of the NH-24. Tolls will be charged on these highways after the commissioning.
In his last meeting with the NHAI officials, Adityanath pointed out that his Government has given top priority to maintaining the existing roads as well as constructing new roads and promised them support to improve the condition of roads in the state as soon as possible.
Directing to make all the roads of State potholes free by June 15, Adityanath encouraged the NHAI) officials to ensure proper maintenance of all roads within its jurisdiction.
last week, Gadkari announced that the ambitious Eastern Peripheral Expressway criss- crossing the districts of Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Greater Noida in UP will be in place by August this year.