Lucknow: In a state,which has seen some of the worst agitations at Bhatta Parsaul in Gautambudhnagar and Aligarh over land acquisition few years ago, where the farmers and land owners always looked at the government agencies with suspicion and land issues still remained the most contested cases in the courts, the ongoing story here looks like a fiction rather than a realty.
In the times when the entire country is debating over ‘good’ and ‘bad’ provisions of the land bill brought by BJP-led government at the Centre, Uttar Pradesh, more often termed as the ‘troublesome’ state to have infrastructure and industrial projects here, is going through a silent and smooth operation where the record area of land has been acquired for a green-field project in record time and with record payment schedule.
As much as 95% of over 3000 hactares of land had been acquired by U.P government for one of its most ambitious projects i.e the Rs 15000 crore access-controlled green field Expressway project connecting state capital of Lucknow with the major industrial and tourist centre of Agra.
It may look a little ‘unusual’ in view of the snail paced developmental in Uttar Pradesh till some time back but the sudden policy shift of Akhilesh government witnessed some adrenalin-driven activities in some of major projects including this Lucknow-Agra expressway. In precisely six months-period, the dream project of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav started to look on grounds removing inherent obstacles in the way, land acquisition being the major one.
Talking to NewsMobile, Mr Navneet Sahgal, the chief executive officer (CEA) of newly-created U.Expressway Industrial Development Authority (UPIDA), responsible for execution of this mega-project said “Yes, the land acquisition has been a vexed issue in many such projects in the country but luckily,we managed to sail through in the record time and that too without any fuss and voices of discontent.’’
Adding ” could be the U. P formula for land acquisition comes handy in this large endeavour.”
It may be recalled that the land acquisition policy adopted by U.P in the recent years had many admirers and was claimed to have been emulated by many states.
Attributing the expeditious manner in which the 302-km long 6 lane (expandable to 8 lanes) Expressway got into shape with allocation of work, handing over the land to companies,to a firm political will of Akhilesh Yadav and the time-bound monitoring by the chief secretary Alok Ranjan, the CEO of UPIDA said that the project would be readied in two year’s time which ,if done, is sure to enter into the record books.
With regards to land acquisition in Agra, Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etawah, Auraiya,Kannuaj, Kanpur Nagar, Unnao,Hardoi and Lucknow, the 10 districts through which the Expressway has to pass, Sahgal said as many as thirty thousand land registries had already been done in this short span. Out of this unbelievably only seven cases came under dispute,those too over minor issues of amount of compensation and likely to be resolved any day, he added.Â
Moreover, the CEO said,the personal interest by the UP CM into the complexed land issues further eased the things. Significantly, the districts like Mainpuri, Etawah, Kannauj and Firozabad have been past and present electoral costituencies of Akhilesh, his father and Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his wife Dimple Yadav.
The chief minister, incidentally, was liberal in showering praise on Navneet Sehgal during his IAS week speech in view of his performance as CEO, UPIDA.
This expressway would not only reduce the distance between the state capital and the national capital but also help giving accessibility to traders of glass industry in Firozabad, perfume industry of Kannuaj and leather trade of Agra.It will connect 232 villages through four railway bridges,13 big bridges,52 small bridges, 59 under-pass and 132 pedestrian paths
Â