L-G okays land acquisition for Barapullah Elevated Road proj

New Delhi: Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the acquisition of land for the construction of piers as part of the Barapullah Elevated Road project between Sarai Kale Khan and Mayur Vihar that has been delayed by more than six years, Raj Niwas officials said on Friday.

Saxena has asked officials to identify individuals, officers and engineers responsible for the delay, and subsequent losses to the exchequer by way of cost overruns, so that responsibility could be fixed, they added.

The lieutenant governor has approved the acquisition of 0.63 hectares of land in Nangli Razapur village near Sarai Kale Khan in South-East District for the project. The L-G is the designated competent authority as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act.

The L-G, while disposing the file, noted, “Even as I approve the proposal of the department for land acquisition on pre-pages, I am constrained to observe that the 3rd phase of the Barapullah elevated road project - an extension of the earlier project completed in 2010, which was conceived in 2015 with a target of completion in 2017, got delayed by over six years, for want of acquisition of small parcels of land.”

There was no immediate reaction from the government.

Saxena also noted that the project work was started without having requisite land parcels in hand and no concrete efforts were made by the authorities for timely acquisition of required land parcels, thereby affecting this project of immense public importance aimed at improving connectivity and decongesting traffic, he added.

“The Lt Governor also noted the fact that despite land not being in possession and the future implementation of the project being in jeopardy thereof, hundreds of crores of public fund was spent in construction of the project,” said the official.

Saxena has asked to identify individuals / officers / engineers so that responsibility could be fixed for this “serious misdemeanour”.

“He has asked for this exercise to be undertaken at the earliest and report thereof to be submitted to the L-G Secretariat for further necessary action.

The L-G has also directed the Chief Secretary that if there is any further delay, responsibility should be fixed on officers / officials behind it and action should be taken. The L-G has asked for the concerns expressed by him on file to be brought to the notice of the Chief Minister and the Minister-in-charge.