With the Union Surface Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announcing road development works worth Rs. 50,000 crore in Andhra Pradesh a day ago, the State government is in for a daunting task of completing the land acquisition process for Greenfield projects by December 2016.
According to the announcement, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will develop at least a 2,000-km road network in AP. Of this, around 200 km fall under the Outer Ring Road (ORR) project for Amaravati city.
The Centre will bear the expenses of land acquisition (LA) for the works sanctioned under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP)-VII. But, the State government will have to bear the same for the ORR project. And for other projects too, the State will have to facilitate the land acquisition process, while the NHAI will make the payments, sources say. The Centre has roughly estimated that a 180-200 km road network is necessary for the ORR. However, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that a 220-km ORR is needed for Amaravati city.
Now, acquiring land will be a Hearculean task for the government as the whole process has to be completed as per the norms of the Land Acquisition Act- 2013.According to information, the land requirement ranges between 6 and 12 acre depending upon the road. As the ORR is a Greenfield project, the government will have to acquire a minimum of 12 acre for laying a km of road, meaning 2,400 acres has to be acquired in Krishna and Guntur districts for the 220-km ORR.
Secondly, the Centre has left the decisions regarding road alignment to the State government, meaning the government has to bear all the pulls and pressures involved in fixing the alignment.
The officials point out that there will be many pulls and pressures even after issuing the LA notification. Unless the government does the LA process with a “neck-break speed”, it would not be able to meet the December 2016 deadline, they say.
2,400 acres to be acquired for Amaravati ORR project by Dec. 2016
Fixing road alignment for the 220-km ORR is another Herculean task
2,400 acres has to be acquired for Amaravati ORR project by December 2016
2,400 acres to be
acquired for
Amaravati ORR
project by Dec. 2016
Fixing road alignment
for the 220-km
ORR is another
Herculean task
