Agra ring road deal scrapped

The decision was taken after taking the developer into confidence which had already expressed its desire to quit following non-availability of additional land as sweetener,as promised in the past.

The government will now float a fresh tender for the project,which is not only significant to give a free way to the traffic coming from Yamuna Expressway but also for the proposed Lucknow-Agra Expressway,which has been planned by the incumbent government.

The decision was taken at a review meeting,called by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,where officials of the Jaypee Group,the Agra Development Authority (ADA) and Industrial Development Department (IDD) were present.

“The agreement between the Jaypee Group and the UP government was signed on February 4,2010,which has been scrapped today. The project is significant because on a daily average about 5,000 cars come from Yamuna Expressway and NH-2 towards Agra,and the city is not equipped to handle that kind of pressure at present. The project will be taken up on PPP model only,but in a fresh manner where instead of land parcel for the developer,some other model would be adopted,” said AK Gupta,Industrial Development Commissioner.

According to the agreement,the state government was supposed to give 1,278-hectare land parcel to Jaypee group as “sweetener” along with 265 hectares to develop the ring road. While 80 per cent of the land was acquired,the government failed to take physical possession of the land because of resistance from farmers. Besides,there was litigation on over about 50 hectares.

In fact,owing to these problems,a large part of the developer group’s security deposit was returned during the previous regime,an official said,adding that the remaining money will be paid back soon.

The government has said that no land would be acquired from the farmers forcefully,but recovering the compensation already paid to the farmer is going to be a problem.

Chief Secretary Jawed Usmani has been authorised to hold meetings to work out fresh proposals. The government has decided to go ahead with a model where an annuity is paid to the developer by the state as compensation for investing in the project. In this model,farmers are offered about 25 per cent of the developed land along the road and the rest is sold to commercial houses to earn revenue.

A team of officials from the ADA,which is the nodal agency for the project,has been asked to visit Jaipur to study a model of this kind of project for construction of a ring road.

It was also decided that toll would charged on the road,but only at the entry and exit point,and city commuters would be exempted.

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