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Raichak-Barasat Road Project Hits Land Hurdle

By siddharth22, Section News
Posted on Wed Oct 31, 2007 at 11:42:01 PM EST

Land acquisition remains a ticklish issue for the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government despite investments worth several thousands of crores flowing into the state.

This became evident at Wednesday's Cabinet meeting, which cleared proposals for a one million tonne steel plant in Jamuria, Burdwan,
involving an investment of Rs 6,000 crore and two industrial estates at Shaltora in Bankura and Budbud in Burdwan but also decided that only 26.75 km of the 98 km stretch from Raichak to Barasat would be constructed for now, due to land acquisition problems although the government has said that construction of the 26.75 km is being taken up as a "first phase" of construction.

For now, only a portion of the road 18 km from Raichak to Usti and around eight kilometre from Bhangar to Barasat would be taken up by New Kolkata International Development Private Limited of which the Indonesia-based Salim Group is a part. For this, altogether 1,168 acres of land have to be acquired.

According to a senior minister, the road which is to pass through Bhangar, Canning, Baruipur and Mograhat cannot be constructed right now as land acquisition is turning out to be a major problem. Therefore, it has been decided to construct the two stretches, where acquisition is not an issue. Once that is done, it might be possible to link it with National Highway 117, till the construction of the remaining part is complete.

But for the moment, the government is concentrating on the two stretches from Raichak to Usti and from Bhangar to Barasat, till the land problem is resolved. "It is not possible to take up the entire road till people can be pursued to part with their land. For the moment, it is not happening," the minister added.

Meanwhile, in a significant steel project for the state, the Cabinet cleared the proposal of Shyam Steel for setting up a 1 million tonne capacity steel plant in Jamuria at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore. For this, 1500 acres would be acquired.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb said the steel plant would come up along with a 100 MW captive power plant and also generate 5,000 jobs.

Source:The Times Of India,01-11-07

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