Won’t lease land to NHAI: Manesar residents

Residents of Manesar have reiterated that they will not lease their land to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to set up a toll plaza in Sehrawan, located 11 kilometres from the present toll plaza at Kherki Daula.

Residents said the district administration, under pressure from NHAI, is trying to get clearances from the forest department for construction on the land, which falls under the forest zone, and transfer the same to Millennium City Expressway Private Limited (MCEPL), the concessionaire of the Kherki Daula toll.

NHAI requires 65 acres at Sehrawan to set up the new toll plazas. In October 2014, NHAI officials had written to the district administration of Gurgaon for transferring to NHAI the 65 acres, of which 59 acres fall under Manesar gram sabha.

The land is under the jurisdiction of the Manesar gram sabha. Earlier, the village chief and other leaders had agreed to lease the land to NHAI at Rs1 per year for setting up the toll plaza. However, this decision was met with resistance from within and at a later gram sabha meeting, it was unanimously decided not to lease the land to NHAI.

Dharambir, a resident of Manesar, said, “The gram sabha has decided not to lease 59 acres to NHAI. The decision of the gram sabha cannot be ignored by the government. We have got to know that the district administration is likely to get clearances from the forest department (for construction activity) in a day or two to transfer our land to NHAI, but this exercise will fail.”

Vinay Pratap Singh, the deputy commissioner (DC) of Gurgaon, said, “I am likely to write to the forest department for getting the clearance. A clearance from the forest department is required for transferring the land to NHAI.”

The NHAI, on receiving the land, will transfer the same to the concessionaire for shifting the toll plaza from Kherki Daula.

“The land in question falls under the forest zone and for this (construction), a clearance from the forest department is essential. No construction activity can take place on land in the forest area without a no-objection certificate from the forest department,” a senior NHAI official said.

On August 14, 2017, Nitin Gadkari had announced the shifting of the toll plaza from Kherki Daula for ease of business and better traffic movement between Gurgaon and Manesar.

The MCEPL had claimed that it spent ₹1,200 crore on the DelhiGurgaon Expressway, including the toll plaza, and their interest stands at ₹800 crore taking the cost of shifting the toll to ₹2,000 crore. In January 2017, the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) and NHAI requested the concessionaire to waive ₹800 crore and planned to buy the toll by paying ₹1,200 crore. However, the HSIIDC pulled out citing fund crunch.