Failure to acquire two plots holds up key Yamuna bridge

NEW DELHI: Four months after the Barapullah Phase-III project missed its first completion deadline, October 2017, because of delay in acquiring two plots of land (750m long) in the Yamuna riverbed, a social impact assessment (SIA) report for land acquisition was received on Tuesday. This, however, is only a small step forward in the project. The 3.5km-long elevated corridor is aimed at providing hassle-free connectivity between east and south Delhi.

With a gradual increase in traffic on NH-24 and the DND flyway, there is an urgent need for an alternative route to connect the two parts of the capital. Sources say the traffic volume is likely to increase with completion of the NH-24 widening project.

PWD had found out about the two plots soon after it started work in 2015, when

DDA

handed over land for the project. It had then requested the government’s land and building department for acquiring the plots. However, the acquisition process started only in July 2017 with the panel for SIA being notified. This delay has proved costly.

Lieutenant governor Anil Baijal assigned the work to

Ambedkar University

’s School of Human Ecology in September 2017. PWD officials say it will take a minimum of one-and-a-half years from the day land is handed over to them to complete the project. And there is a long way to go.

Ambedkar University submitted the SIA report, which is mandatory under the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to the district magistrate of southeast Delhi on Tuesday. “We have got the report. The university will now finalise the report after obtaining public suggestions/objections and then submit it to the expert committee of land and building department. The expert committee will submit its final report to the Delhi government, based on which a notification will be issued,” said BS Jaglan, district magistrate, southeast Delhi.

“We are exploring all options, including direct purchase, to acquire the land,” said a government spokesperson. Infrastructure projects did not receive much attention from the government in its first two years.

Barapullah Phase-III is being constructed over the Yamuna, connecting Sarai Kale Khan in the south to

Mayur Vihar

in the east. While work at both the ends is going on, PWD is unable to complete the construction work in the middle. The deadline had been revised to May 2018.

However, Sarvagya Srivastava, engineer-in-chief,

Delhi PWD

, said: “We can’t say anything about the deadline. It all depends on when we get the land. We will need at least 18 months to complete the work from the day the land is handed over to us.”

PWD officials say 45-50% of the work has been completed. The crucial part of the project is constructing a bridge over the river for which PWD has to dig 12 well foundations. While work on eight has been completed, four are stuck due to the land acquisition problem and shifting of a Transco line. “Each well foundation takes nearly eight months,” said an official.

Meanwhile, it took PWD almost two years to get permission from Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) to start the process to shift its line. “We started the work in January this year and will finish it by May,” said a PWD official.

The villagers of Nangli Razapur who own the two land parcels are willing to sell their land to the government but have demanded Rs 7-9 crore per acre as compensation. “It was turned down by the government as the amount is very high,” said an official. With villagers unwilling to negotiate the amount, Delhi government then decided to follow the tedious land acquisition process.

“They (Delhi government) are ready to incur losses worth hundreds of crores on the project but not willing to pay us. We want the government to pay us Rs 7crore per acre,” said one of the farmers, Rajbir Singh Tanwar.