Deputy commissioner K.K.Soan at the revenue camp in Ranchi on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, Jan. 31: A revenue camp aimed at ensuring an interface between villagers, whose lands are being acquired for the ring road project, police and land revenue officials, today ended on a positive note.

Compensation to the tune of Rs 29.27 lakh was distributed among villagers. This removed the hurdle that had been hampering progress of the prestigious project for over a year.

Conceived in 2006, the ring road, to cost Rs 155 crore, will encircle the state capital and ease the growing traffic congestion in the city as an alternative route.

Though work on the prestigious project started in 2007, progress has been tardy. Villagers at Nagri halted construction of the first 23km stretch connecting NH-75 on the Ranchi-Daltonganj route with NH-33 near Vikas Vidyalaya on the Ranchi-Ramgarh route in June last year, alleging illegal acquisition of their land by the state government.

Once complete, buses and trucks plying on Ranchi-Daltonganj, Ranchi-Gumla and Ranchi-Ramgarh routes will bypass the city through the ring road.

“We had assembled police officials, public prosecutors, land revenue officials, as well as the affected villagers whose lands are to be acquired, on one platform so that all aspects of land disputes could be understood and settled amicably. The experiment paid off. Apart from the Ranchi ring road dispute, other problems were amicably settled to the satisfaction of all,” a beaming deputy commissioner K.K. Soan told The Telegraph.

“The revenue camp was organised after two-and-a-half years. We hope to organise such camps at intervals of three to four months,” he added.