Now NHAI project runs into land acquisition problems in West Bengal

Petrapole handles about 80 per cent of the Rs 5,200-crore Indo-Bangladesh bilateral trade. However, owing to strong local resistance and active “party cadres”, the NHAI has not been able to carry out land survey along the alignment. In reply to a question in the Lok Sabha last week, the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport & Highways admitted that the progress on the stretch, also known as the Jessore road, is severely hampered.

“The Government has approved four-laning of NH-34 and NH-35 under NHDP III. Preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) has been taken up. But progress is hampered severely due to resistance of local people who are not allowing carrying out of the survey,” Minister of State K H Muniyappa stated in Parliament, adding that no timeframe could, hence, be specified for completion of the project.

While 8.80 km of the project road lies on NH-34 from the airport to Barasat, 59.60 km are along NH-35.

Things have been looking particularly grim since the flaring up of the Nandigram issue. As per its latest monthly report, the 60 km to be four-laned under the NHDP III from Barasat to Bangaon on NH-35 are yet to be awarded.

The NHAI has been able to to get a mere 28.83 hectares for construction work in the last one year. They need to acquire 151.67 hectares in the state for the East-West corridor and while they have notified all the required area for acquisition, state politics has ensured that not an inch of this is yielded to the organisation.

The authority has been unable to conduct any land surveys along NH-34 along the Barasat-Dhalkola stretch — better known as the spine of West Bengal — and the entire area between Kolkata and Farrakha and the Barasat-Petrapole stretch along the international border.

The NHAI has been talking to the state Government for the past few months, but this has not paid off. NHAI teams are even unable to approach areas where land has to be acquired for highway widening. In contrast, in most other states, like even neighbouring Bihar, the NHAI has been able to start work on land even before the compensation has actually reached those whose land has been acquired.