Chandigarh: Shorter route to airport faces hurdle as 80 landowners file objections

A total of 34.61 acres will be acquired in Chandigarh through acquisition for a shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport.

Already running behind schedule, landowners’ objections against land acquisition are set to push further the project to construct a shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport.

On February 14, the last day to file objections, a total of 80 of the 110 landowners, whose land has been identified for acquisition, refused to give their land to the UT administration through its Negotiation Policy of 2018.

They instead demanded that land be acquired either through the land pooling policy of Punjab or Haryana.

Land acquisition officer Sorabh Kumar Arora, who received the objections, will be forwarding them to the Chandigarh deputy commissioner and other officers concerned, who will decide on the next course of action.

Compared to one-time monetary compensation through UT’s Negotiation Policy, land pooling scheme offers owners residential or commercial plots in exchange for their land.

A total of 51 acres need to be acquired for the project of which 39.6 acres fall in Chandigarh and the remaining 12 acres in Punjab’s Jagatpura and Khandala villages.

A total of 34.61 acres will be acquired in Chandigarh through acquisition. This includes 11.88 acres in Burail and 22.73 acres in Char Taraf Burail.

Further, 3.76 acres of defence land in these revenue estates will be transferred by the Union ministry of defence.

Chandigarh admn offering up to ₹3.34 crore per acre

In November last year, UT administrator Banwarilal Purohit had given the green light to complete the land acquisition process through UT’s Negotiation Policy of 2018.

Following this, the UT administration had issued a notification offering a compensation ranging from ₹2.54 crore to ₹3.34 crore per acre to landowners for the acquisition.

Satinder Singh Sidhu, a nominated councillor in the Chandigarh municipal corporation, who led the delegation of landowners, said, “We will not give land through the Negotiation Policy. If the administration still insists on going ahead with the same notification, we will hold a protest.”

As per the UT notification issued on January 15, under its Negotiation Policy, compensation for the land, structures, and trees will be paid within six months from the date of receiving consent from the concerned landowners. In case of a delay of more than six months in reaching a consensus on the rates, 6% simple interest will be paid on the compensation amount until the actual payments are made, as stated in the notification.

The project is already facing delays owing to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The UT administration, in the last week of January, had sent the project file to the Union ministry of home affairs for approval, as all projects estimated to be over ₹100 crore need Centre’s clearance. However, the ministry is not likely to take up the matter before Lok Sabha polls, expected to be held in April or May this year.

New road to cut travel time to five minutes

The UT administration is planning the shorter route from near Sector 48. The new road will start from the T-point intersection of Vikas Marg (coming from Sector-43 ISBT) and Purv Marg (coming from Tribune Chowk).

The current distance from this intersection to the airport is 11.5 km after traversing through Mohali. The shorter route will reduce this to around 3.5 km, thereby bringing the travel time down from 25 minutes to 5 minutes.

The planned shorter route will be 60-metre-wide, with three main carriageways, two service lanes and 2-metre-wide cycle tracks on both sides.

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