Ghaziabad: The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said Wednesday that all land issues pertaining to four villages, which are holding up the work on Phase 4 of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME), will be taken up in one week.
The Phase 4 of the 32km six-lane access controlled highway is meant to ease connectivity between Dasna and Meerut. The NHAI officials said a review meeting was held in Lucknow and was presided over by senior officials of the project monitoring group from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
The work on Phase 4 has been held up on account of land issues at two points. The first is the issue of about 19 hectares in four villages of Dasna, Rasoolpur Sikrod, Kushaliya and Nahal. The second pertains to land near Bhojpur and farmers from Jainuddinpur, Moradabad (near Modinagar) and Bhojpur villages have raised certain claims.
“During the review meeting, UP officials told the PMO’s project monitoring group officials that a decision over the land issues in four villages is likely to be made within a week. Earlier, they had told during the ‘Pragati’ meeting chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi (on November 6) that the land will be handed over to the NHAI within a month,” RP Singh, project director (NHAI), said.
The DME is being built at a cost of ₹6,273 crore and its foundation stone was laid by Modi in December 2015. Currently, only two of the four phases have become operational.
During the ‘Pragati’ meeting, Modi had issued revised deadline of May 2020 for the project and had also expressed unhappiness over land issues delaying the DME work.
In 2017, then divisional commissioner Prabhat Kumar had ordered an inquiry after complaints that certain officials allegedly connived with private persons to purchase land in the four villages, after a notification was issued for land acquisition in 2012. It was alleged that the persons named in the case had allegedly purchased in the names of relatives. It was also alleged that cases pertaining to the disputed land were sent for arbitration and a final settlement was done up to six times the normal rate of ₹1,100 per square metres. Officials said any sale/purchase of land after issuance of a notification is not allowed.
In the second issue, district magistrate (DM) Ajay Shankar Pandey Wednesday held a meeting with farmers of three villages near Bhojpur. The DM nominated subdivisional magistrate, Modinagar, as the nodal officer to resolve all issues along with the NHAI.
“The farmers had demanded raising of height of certain underpasses, construction of connecting roads, payment of pending payment on account of land taken for the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) within 15 days and the filing for arbitration in cases wherein farmers had demanded a hiked land compensation. The nodal officer will resolve these issues in coordination with NHAI,” Pandey said in a statement.
“The height of underpasses is standard — four metres from ground. We have also constructed about eight kilometres of connecting roads near these villages. Farmers now want a parallel service road. As regards the EPE, some dispersal amounts may be pending and they will be made soon,” Singh said.
At present, the Phase 4 has already missed its deadline of August 2019. Also, Phase 2 — from UP Gate to Dasna — is slotted to be ready by May 2020.
Prasanta Patnaik