‘Eastern Peripheral e-way delayed due to agitations’

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) complained before the Supreme Court that construction work of the 24.5-km stretch of Eastern Peripheral Expressway in Ghaziabad has been stuck due to agitation by landowners and UP police’s failure to provide protection for acquisition of land for the project.

NHAI said UP police did not offer assistance despite the top court’s order directing its Director General of Police (DGP) to look into the issue. “Farmers continue to stage protests at the construction site.

They have got their compensation amount in lieu of acquisition and yet are refusing to part away with the land meant for the expressway,” senior counsel Indu Malhotra submitted on behalf of NHAI.

The court, which has been hearing a 1985 PIL filed by environmentalist MC Mehta on issues including vehicular pollution, had asked the Centre in 2005 to build a peripheral expressway around Delhi by July 2016 to decongest the national capital and curb pollution in the city.

Eastern and Western Peripheral Expressways — each around 135-km-long — were planned in 2006 following the SC order to form a ring road outside Delhi for channeling non-Delhi bound traffic bypassing the national capital.

Malhotra said NHAI was committed to complete the Eastern Expressway by July 2018, which envisages providing signal-free connectivity between Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Gautam Budh Nagar (Greater Noida) and Palwal.

Meanwhile, a status report submitted by the Centre pointed to a spike in the land acquisition cost for the expressway. Total share has increased from ₹844 crore to ₹7,694 crore. While the Western Expressway would now cost around ₹1,794 crore, eastern is estimated to be built at ₹5,900 crore.

The report indicated the budget might further increase as petitions for enhancement of acquisition charges are still pending in various tribunals and courts. As per the arrangement Delhi has to bear 50 per cent of the cost, which is ₹3,193 crore.

However, the state claimed before the top court that it had already paid is share of a little over ₹653 crore to the central pool. Haryana has to pay ₹129 crore and UP ₹1,026 crore, the report said. According to the SC-appointed monitoring committee the costs have gone up due to acquisition of land acquired since there were changes in the design, shifting of utilities and arbitral awards.