Baalu inaugurates four-lane highway

“The issues pertaining to the compensation of farmers whose land has been acquired for the project, two toll plazas at a short distance of around 8 kilometres and the maintenance of the existing roads while their expansion is in process will be taken up at a meeting on December 16 at 5 pm,” Baalu announced.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Minister of State for Rural Development and Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja, MLAs Vinod Sharma and Capt Kanwaljit Singh were also present on the occasion.

Baalu said a committee would be formed with members from the two states, Centre and the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to solve the issues.

The tolling at Dappar started on Wednesday evening, charging Rs 20 for cars and jeeps. Commuters have to pay Rs 14 for the same vehicles at the earlier toll plaza at Dera Bassi.

At a press conference later, Baalu said the toll contract at Dera Bassi would expire on March 12, 2009, and at present there were no plans of extending the contract to the private party.

He also assured that the Pinjore-Kalka bypass, which has been pending for the last seven to eight months, would also be decided on an urgent basis. “The major issue is of land acquisition as a nod is awaited from the Ministry of Defence. The project has received an estimated budget of Rs 9 crore and tenders have been floated for this,” said the minister.

The 35-km stretch on NH-21 and 22 was executed on the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model with an investment of Rs 500 crore. The project has been completed within the scheduled timeframe of 30 months and it received its provisional completion certificate on November 14, 2008.

There was resentment among the local farmers at Zirakpur regarding compensation for their land acquired for the project. “The company has started charging the toll tax while the original owners of the land have not been paid the compensation yet. Out of Rs 28.96 crore to be paid to the farmers of 22 villages, only Rs 5.84 crore has been paid so far. The farmers in Zirakpur, Lohgarh, Devinagar and Kurali have not been paid a single penny,” said PWD Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa.

At the time of acquisition, the government had fixed the price of land at Rs 1.5 crore per acre, which the arbitrator later claimed to be Rs 7.5 crore per acre. As a result, the NHAI moved court and the case has been pending.