Prompted by the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI) reminder, the Patna district administration has sped up efforts to acquire around 64 acres of land needed for building the long-delayed Danapur-Bihta elevated road.
Ashoka Buildcom, which has singed the agreement with the NHAI for building the 25-km road, in both elevated and at grade mode, has sought encroachment free land to start ground work.
District land acquisition officer, Patna, Ranjan Kumar Chaudhary, said that they would start dismantling as many as 332 temporary and permanent constructions, identified on 64 acre of land, after payment of the compensation as per the norms.
Citing the decision of the district magistrate-led project monitoring committee (PMC) on Tuesday, Chaudhary said that village-wise camps would be organised for disbursement of compensation for land to be acquired for Danapur-Bihta elevated road project and other nine major infrastructure projects going on the district. The state government has already released ₹456 crore for disbursement of compensation in lieu of land acquisition for the project.
Of its total length, Danapur-Bihta road, being built at the cost of ₹3,000 crore, will have five kilometres of construction on at grade mode, while the rest would be on elevated structure.
The road project was sanctioned by the union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) as part of the PM package to Bihar, along with Koilwar-Buxar stretch, ahead of the 2015 assembly elections in Bihar and its revised estimate was approved in 2020. While the Koilwar-Buxar four-lane road has been opened for traffic, work on Danapur-Bihta road is yet to commence.
Patna Ring Road
The project monitoring committee has also directed the district authorities to speed up acquisition of 151.57 acres of land required for construction of six-lane Sherpur-Dighwara stretch of the Patna ring road. The ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) has already sanctioned another six-lane bridge on the river Ganga at a cost of ₹4,200 crore. A sum of ₹15,000 crore is being spent on building the 140-km-long ring road, which will also pass through Vaishali and Saran district across Ganga river.
Railway projects
The district magistrate also directed the officials to acquire land required for building Neora-Daniawan railway line, Rampur-Dumra-Tall double bridge at Mokama and Barh-Bakhtiarpur third line. Officials said they had received over 3,000 applications for compensation against 492.36 acres of land in 45 revenue villages. “Compensation for about 86% land acquired for the project have been paid,” said an officer.
Likewise, officials claimed that the district administration has paid compensation for about 75% of land acquired for Rampur-Dumra-Tall double bridge. “Officials have been told to hold camps in each revenue village concerned to disburse the compensation for Barh-Bakhtiyarpur third railway line from next week,” said the officer.
