ROURKELA: The stalled Road Over Bridge (ROB) project at Rajgangpur town in Sundargarh district has brought unexpected good fortune to the landowners, with at least seven of them becoming overnight crorepatis.
This happened as a result of the ongoing direct purchase of private land for the ROB project, a decision made to avoid further delays that often accompany the complex and time-consuming land acquisition process.
The only drawback to this expeditious approach is that due to the project’s belated commencement, the benchmark valuation of urban land has doubled, ultimately increasing the overall cost of the ROB. Approximately 1.905 acre of private urban land have been earmarked for purchase, with an allocation of around Rs 43 crore.
Revenue department sources indicate that direct land purchase for the project became possible due to the absence of land belonging to Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Scheduled Castes (SC) persons along the bridge’s alignment. The Odisha government approved the direct land purchase proposal on August 16 and allocated a budget of Rs 43 crore for the purpose.
The process of direct land purchase from 54 landowners commenced on August 21, and as of now, 33 of them have received land compensation. Among these, at least seven people have become millionaires overnight, with one of them receiving the highest compensation of Rs 1.51 crore for reportedly losing relatively small patches of land ranging from 7.5 decimal to 10 decimal.
The present benchmark valuation has been calculated at Rs 7 lakh per decimal. Under the direct land purchase method, the value per decimal has doubled to Rs 14 lakh, along with a 100 percent solatium. Furthermore, the valuation of structures was doubled after considering depreciation. It is anticipated that the land acquisition process will be completed by the first week of November.
Earlier this year, in March, the administration had conducted a public hearing on the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) report as part of the complex land acquisition process, which was subsequently abandoned.
Superintendent engineer for Sundargarh Road & Building (R&B) Division, Narayan Patel stated that the project is expected to be completed in 30 months. He added that the tender had recently been finalised, and the contract firm started foundation work.
Project in nutshell
ROB project taken up jointly by SER and Works department
Cost Rs 44.75 crore approximately, three years back
As of now, only the middle section of the bridge of about 150 metre length in advanced stage of completion