Bengal's reluctance to reclaim land for stalled infrastructure projects is in stark contrast to the urgency with which it is trying to bulldoze squatters blocking a flyover crucial to the success of a township coming up in Batanagar.

Around 200 shops along a stretch of Budge Budge Trunk Road between Jinjirabazar and Budge Budge have been asked to relocate by 4pm on February 12, failing which the structures would be pulled down. The South 24-Parganas district administration started announcing the deadline from a loudspeaker-fitted autorickshaw on Wednesday morning.

The proposed two-lane flyover is one of the selling points of the privately developed township in Batanagar with a clutch of highrise blocks in different categories. The promised amenities include a school, hospital and a golf course. Another large-format real estate project, this one in Maheshtala, stands to benefit from the proposed flyover.

"The 200 shops have to go since they have encroached on government land. The government is keen on developing that area and there are many housing complexes coming up in that part of the city," an official of the district administration said.

The double-lane, 7.4km flyover is supposed to start at the Jinjirabazar crossing, about 2km from Taratala, and end at Batanagar. A drive that takes nearly 30 minutes during rush hour would be reduced to 10 minutes once the flyover is ready.

Vehicles will have to pay toll to use the flyover. After 32 years, the flyover will be handed over to the state government.

There is also a plan to widen the stretch of Budge Budge Trunk Road leading to the elevated corridor. But what the state government is keen to do for the cause of real estate, it has been reluctant to even try for infrastructure projects elsewhere.

The East-West Metro is stuck at three places - Brabourne Road, Bowbazar and Duttabad in Salt Lake - because of the government's failure to clear land for construction. The government has proposed a change in the alignment of the Metro route to avoid removing people and establishments blocking the way.

The administration has told the railways that it won't be possible to evict traders and residents to build a station on Brabourne Road and Bowbazar. Infrastructure company Afcons, contracted to lay tracks between Howrah Maidan and Sealdah, moved Calcutta High Court last year for an end to the stand-off.

In Duttabad, work has been stalled for three years because the government still hasn't been able to get some families to relocate to alternative shelters built for them nearby.

The Baranagar-Noapara-Barrackpore Metro link too has hit a land hurdle. About 500 families living along a stretch of the construction zone near Dakshineswar have stalled work. The railways has been forced to agree to pay Rs 130 crore extra to a new contractor because nobody else would touch a project being held hostage by settlers.

The plan to widen National Highway 34 hasn't materialised either because of the government's failure to provide land between Barasat and Krishnagar to the National Highways Authority of India. This is despite land acquisition notices being issued four years ago.

"The settlers aren't ready to move and the government is unwilling to evict them and take possession of the land," a senior official said.

Across Bengal, stretches of highways are still narrow two-lane roads even as those elsewhere in the country are being widened into four-lane corridors.

The exception seems to be Budge Budge, where the government has said it won't even pay compensation to those who are evicted because they had encroached on the land.

Dulal Das, former chairman of Maheshtala Municipality and mayor Sovan Chatterjee's father-in-law, said the "remaining vacant land" might be distributed among the evicted people after the flyover was completed. "Many of the shop owners own land elsewhere. We won't compensate them. Those who have nothing else might get land later, depending on what remains after the flyover is complete."

When Metro asked mayor Chatterjee why Trinamul had failed to do in Calcutta what it had done in Maheshtala, he said: "I can't comment on what Maheshtala has done. There is no such problem in Calcutta."

The Hiland group, which is developing the 262-acre Calcutta Riverside township, will partially fund the flyover along with construction company Larsen and Toubro. The remaining cost will be borne by the central government under the JNNURM.

When it was sanctioned a couple of years ago, the estimated project cost was Rs 248 crore. The budget has since inched towards Rs 300 crore, sources said.

Sumit Dabriwala of Riverbank Holdings, part of the Hiland Group, said "work might start within a week and be completed in two years".