Delay in land acquisition has put a spanner in work on the ambitious 23.5km-long Ganga driveway.
The road construction department had recently cleared the project design but the government is yet to acquire 57 acres of private land. The delay in acquisition would also escalate the time and cost of the project.
The Bihar State Road Development Corporation Limited (BSRDCL), a wing of the road construction department, which has been assigned to look into the project, recently asked the district magistrates (DMs) of Patna, Saran and Vaishali to expedite the work of acquiring the private plots.
Around 110 acres of government land has not yet been transferred to the road construction department. The project entails providing a hassle-free connectivity between the west and the east ends of Patna.
A senior BSRDCL official told The Telegraph: "We are facing problems in acquiring land from people in three districts. A few portion of the plots in Patna are embroiled in court cases as well. The Patna DM has filed letters patent appeal (LPA) in Patna High Court to take the stay order in the case. Total 57 acres of private land have not yet been acquired."
Hyderabad-based Navayuga Engineering Company Ltd has been awarded the work for construction of the driveway and the company has started pillar work.
On the reason for not acquiring the land, the official said: "According to the new land acquisition policy, compensation has to be four times the market value and we are dealing with that scenario only."
Chief minister Nitish Kumar had laid the foundation stone of the Rs 3,160-crore project on October 11, 2013. Of the amount, Rs 2,770 crore was allotted for construction and the remaining (Rs 390 crore) had been kept for land acquisition and shifting some structures that fall in the alignment of the proposed driveway. The driveway along the southern bank of the Ganga would reduce travel time between Digha Ghat and Didarganj from two hours to 25 minutes. It will also ease the traffic congestion on the city road network.
It is being constructed on an engineering procurement construction (EPC) mode. Under the EPC mode, the government provides funds and the agency that takes up the work, is paid according to the work carried out by it.
Providing the break-up of the land, which needs to be transferred to the department, the official said: "On the Patna side, of 223 acres, only 168 acres have been transferred. In the Saran side, of 129 acres, 89 acres have been transferred and in Vaishaliside, of 130 acres, 123 have been transferred. We still need to transfer 110 acres. This will also take time as it needs cabinet approval."
The deadline to complete the project is September 2017 but hurdles in its path suggests it would not be over before 2019.
A few months back, the project had hit a roadblock at Khajekalan Ghat when residents protested the move to start work claiming compensation had not been paid. They forced the construction company personnel to retreat from the site.
