Protests may delay project further,say officials

Heavy rains in the last fortnight has already crippled the work on the project.

The 9,935-crore project has been in the centre of controversy mainly because of giving of prime land along the main Expressway to the contractor,JP Infratech,for commercial purposes. While Jaypee group has been able to acquire the land meant for main carriageway of the Expressway,the farmers are protesting the move to sell their land at lower rates to the builder.

Talking to The Indian Express,a senior official of the UP government,said “There has been too much of pressure on us to ensure early completion of the project. Even JP had invested in specialised heavy machines to ensure early completion of the project. While rainfall has already affected the work in the last fortnight,no one knows if project would be completed by March 11.”

The sources said that during the last review meeting of the project,the officials had shown their helplessness in maintaining the speed of project because of heavy rainfall in the western UP. However,they were asked to ensure that somehow the way is partially motorable by October this year.

The project assumes significance for the government as it is one of the only project of this scale to be developed under public-private-partnership model in the state. Secondly,it is projected to be completed before 2012 Assembly elections in the state.

Sources said JP Infratech has already invested about Rs 5,000 crore on the project,which includes Expressway as well as area for development along the carriageway.

The state has planned as many as nine expressways for different regions on private partnership model but work on no other expressway has been able to start off.