PM’s review by month-end, Punjab puts land acquisition on fast lane

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi slated to review the progress of centrally- Nearly 17 kilometres of land for the project was acquired in the past week, with more than 25km acquired this month. The PM’s review comes close to the heels of Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari in a hard-hitting letter to the chief minister Bhagwant Mann on August 9, warned that NHAI will have no other option but to cancel/terminate eight severely affected highway projects in Punjab with a total length of 293km costing ₹14,288 crore, if the law and order situation does not improve in the state. Besides highlighting issues of delay in land acquisition, Gadkari’s letter also referred to two incidents in Jalandhar and Ludhiana wherein NHAI staff and contractors working on the Delhi-Katra Expressway were assaulted and threatened. As per the latest land acquisition figures accessed by HT, out of the total 295 km of land falling under the project in Punjab, the state government has acquired 255 km and handed it over to NHAI. “If you look at the figures, till the start of this month, the land acquisition was complete on 230 km out of 295 km stretch falling in Punjab,” the official added.