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 LG is the designated competent authority as per the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement Act.
The LG, while disposing of 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 the 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 the requisite land parcels in hand, and no concrete efforts were made by the authorities for the timely acquisition of the required land parcels, thereby affecting this project of immense public importance aimed at improving connectivity and decongesting traffic, he added.
