NHAI lands a special cell deal with Bengal

The NHAI faced problems regarding land acquisition when it started the work for widening and upgrading highways following which its chairman Satish Kumar wrote to the chief secretary,requesting him to set up such Special Land Acquisition Cells in every district that will work only for NHAI.

“The cells will comprise 8-10 people who will all be retired state government employees from the land and other concerned departments and all the costs,including their salaries and perks,will be borne by the NHAI. Only heads of the respective cells will be a serving state government officials. The state government has agreed to our proposal and has assured that the notification will be issued after the Pujas,” Shyamal Choudhury,general manager (east) of NHAI,said.

“I will discuss it with the PWD secretary tomorrow,” said the chief secretary.

Choudhury said the new system would expedite the land acquisition process which is quite cumbersome at present. “At present,the land acquisition wing of the land reforms department does the whole thing but it takes time as they have to go for acquisition for other projects too. But if a dedicated wing does this only for the NHAI,things will be faster,” the official added.

He said the NHAI,which faced political opposition in widening NH-34 that runs between Barasat in North 24-Parganas and Dalkhola in North Dinajpur district,has overcome those problems.

“Our people faced some problem from local people in Murshidabad district when they went to survey the land but later the issue was amicably resolved,” Choudhury said.