
BHUBANESWAR: Even as bidding is underway for the first phase construction works of coastal highway in Odisha, the ambitious project faces fresh challenges as land acquisition hurdles threaten to delay its progress.
As per the revised alignment, the four-lane access controlled greenfield coastal highway will pass through Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore in Odisha and East Medinipur in West Bengal.
With a length of about 163.2 km, the highway stretches from Rameswar on NH-16 in Khurda to Ratanpur in Kendrapara in the phase-1 and it passes through 134 villages in the four districts of Khurda, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara.
According to the preliminary survey, 768.82 hectare of land will be acquired for the highway with a 45-metre right of way (RoW) to be built on design, build, operate and transfer (hybrid annuity) model. The required land include 113.6 ha of government land, 15.28 ha of forest land and 639.97 ha of private land.
Sources said particulars of more than 250 ha land in 53 villages of Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara districts have not been provided to NHAI yet and the delay has stalled further progress.
“Gop tehsil has not provided land particulars of 21 out of 24 villages while Erasama tehsil has failed to submit the land particulars of all 15 villages to be affected by the project. Similarly, land details of nine villages in Mahakalapada tehsil, four in Kujang and two each in Kakatpur, Brahmagiri and Pattamundai are awaited,” sources said.
What has left the NHAI authorities surprised is that the district revenue officials feign ignorance about the land records.
“How can the revenue officials feign ignorance about land particulars simply stating that those are not available? They will have to find it out. The delay is impacting the progress. Without land records, we cannot proceed with the groundwork,” said a senior official.
The project will have around 25 major bridges, 87 minor bridges, 334 culverts, 43 large vehicle underpasses, 44 small VUPs, four rail over bridges, two interchange structures and four flyovers. It will impact around 20,074 people in 4,364 families.
Preliminary survey indicates that a total of 228 structures will be impacted due to construction of the proposed alignment. As estimated, Rs 700 crore has been proposed for land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of the affected families.
The NHAI has issued tenders for phase-1 construction in four packages worth Rs 7,040 crore. The alignment and DPR are underway for the second phase of the highway that will link Ratanpur with Digha.