Barapullah delay of 3-5 yrs likely: report.

Initially slated to be completed by October 27, 2017, the Barapullah Phase III project is likely to be delayed by “three-five years”, a report by the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) has said. The report has also alleged “inaction” by PWD secretary Ashwani Kumar for the delay, saying it will likely lead to a massive escalation of cost.

The report said the cost “in terms of pollution caused by excessive burning of fuel, loss of man hours, inconvenience caused to commuters due to road congestion and project cost escalation would be enormous”. The project is delayed due to acquisition of 8.5 acres of land. The report noted that only after a joint inspection in May 2015 was it found that “some land which was assumed as
DDA land was actually privately owned and needed to be acquired”.

The report blamed the “stalemate” on the “inaction on the part of Principal Secretary, PWD, Ashwani Kumar and the Land & Buildings Department, GNCTD” and said the situation was “…the same as it was 14 months ago”. Kumar said that he and his department tried several options to acquire the land in question.

“We tried the land purchase option which was not feasible because the land owners demanded Rs 7 crore per acre… This was placed on file and the minister agreed with the view. We then proposed the land for land route, which was shot down by the land owners because they wanted to sell the land. The third option we proposed was that the stretch be declared a National Highway as the acquisition for National Highway projects are simpler. Plus, land acquisition is not supposed to be done by the PWD but by the Revenue and Land and Building (L&B) departments. PWD has been actively following up on the project,” he said.

The report notes that the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) of the project was awarded “after full two years of inertia” in October 2017 to the “School of Human Ecology, Ambedkar University”, in spite of it being “mandatory under the new Act”.

THE INDIAN EXPRESS