THE ROAD TO VALIDATION
Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray is all set to gift the state its longest expressway, the NagpurMumbai Samruddhi Expressway, on May 1, the state’s foundation day. A 520 km stretch between Shiv Madka near Nagpur and temple town Shirdi, which forms the first phase of the Expressway project, is scheduled to be inaugurated on the day. Work continues at a fast pace and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), which is in charge of the project, is hopeful of completing it on time. Besides the economic spin-offs, the 701 km expressway project also has the potential to give a fillip to Thackeray’s party, the Shiv Sena, in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions.
The Samruddhi Expressway has been a hotly-debated topic since then chief minister Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP announced the project in September 2015. There were protests in 2016 by farmers whose land was to be acquired for the project as there was no agreement on the compensation to be paid. Raising the Rs 55,000 crore needed for the project was also a big challenge.
But now, after five years, the Samruddhi Expressway is being touted as a model of speedy land acquisition and fair compensation rates. The MSRDC succeeded in acquiring 80 per cent of the land through direct purchase from the farmers. Around 15 per cent of the land was compulsorily acquired under the land acquisition law, 2015. The remaining land owners challenged the acquisition process but lost the case in court. By 2019, four years after the project started, all the land needed for it had been acquired.
The compensation was calculated on the bases of the ready reckoner rate or RRR (the minimum price at which a property has to be registered) and the last highest market price paid in a specific area. “We gave five times the highest price as compensation. It made the farmers see that our intentions were genuine,” says Radheshyam Mopalwar, managing director of MSRDC.
The agency also ensured that the compensation amount reached the farmers’ bank accounts as soon as they signed the purchase agreement. “They received the money even before they got back home. That increased their trust in us,” he says. Some 350 ‘communicators’, all qualified social workers, were appointed in the 392 villages to maintain a dialogue with the land owners. “They collected 300,000 signatures from the farmers in favour of the land acquisition. I can say with conviction that all these signatures are of real people,” says the MSRDC chief.
Meanwhile, the agency continued with the land measurement process (earlier halted by villagers in some places), telling the owners the compensation amount could not be fixed until the land was measured. The reasoning worked and resistance to the project gradually receded.
On July 17, 2017, almost two years after the project was announced, the MSRDC signed the first land purchase agreement in Nagpur. The next day, the second agreement was signed at Karanja Lad, Washim district. The actual construction started on January 1, 2019. The biggest challenge was in Thane where 8,000 families were affected in a 98 km stretch. “My effort was to keep talking in spite of the opposition. Their resistance melted due to the consistent dialogue,” says Mopalwar.
The MSRDC has raised loans worth Rs 25,000 crore from 10 banks and financial institutions. It has an equity of Rs 28,000 crore in the project. Another challenge in constructing the road was the large stretches passing through forests, including the Tadoba-Andheri Tiger Reserve. The MSRDC made the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) its partner to smooth out any objections here.
THE SAMRUDDHI EXPRESSWAY IS NOW BEING TOUTED AS A MODEL OF SPEEDY LAND ACQUISITION AT FAIR COMPENSATION RATES FOR LAND OWNERS
The entire 120 km stretch in the forest in Katepurna has been kept intact as the road winds through the forest floor. There will be animal habitation on the upper deck while the vehicles will run through a patch surrounded by noise barriers. The MSRDC claims it will be the first expressway that passes ‘under’ a forest (see graphic).
The Samruddhi Expressway was supposed to be completed by July 1, 2021. The delays in land acquisition as well as the Covid-induced lockdown forced the MSRDC to revise the deadline to July 1, 2023. This will involve the second and last phase of the project, Shirdi to Shahapur in Thane (181 km). Even with the hiccups, Mopalwar is confident the MSRDC will finish on time and also save Rs 3,000-5,000 crore. “We give incentives to contractors if the work is done on time; there are penalties too for delays.” The Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalition government in the state will certainly hope Mopalwar’s optimism is not wishful. With the scheduled inauguration only two months away, construction of several underpasses is still on at work sites in Nagpur. Work on a flyover was also incomplete and the target date looks challenging for now.
For Thackeray, the Samruddhi Expressway is a showcase project, which, he hopes, will demonstrate his focus on buildling/ strengthening infrastructure. He is also hoping it will help his party, the Shiv Sena, emerge stronger in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. The party had won four of 62 seats in Vidarbha and nine of 30 in the Marathwada region in the 2019 assembly election. Interestingly, Thackeray was initially dead against the expressway, saying it would destroy farmlands.
But now, with the inauguration of the expressway due on May 1, Thackeray will become its biggest advocate. His target will be to complete the full expressway in two years, well ahead of the next assembly election in 2024. There’s also work on the 19 townships proposed along the Samruddhi Expressway route, which will be the next big challenge. ■