20 per cent E-way PAPs bought land with compensation

Mumbai: The huge compensation provided by the state government to people affected by the Mumbai-Nagpur Expressway, also known as the Samruddhi Mahamarg, has helped them to meet their needs and the most of them have used the money to buy new land.

A survey conducted by the Maharashtra State Road Development Cor-poration (MSRDC) says that nearly 20 per cent of farmers, whose land was acquired, have purchased new land in the vicinity from the compensation they received for their plots.

According to Mahar-astra government officials, almost 90 per cent of the total requirement of 8,311 hectares of land for the 701-kilometre-long Samruddhi Mahamarg project has been acquired so far. For this, a total compensation of `6,600 crore has been given to 23,500 owners till date.

The MSRDC conducted a survey on how the compensation amount was utilised by project-affected people whose land was acquired for the project. It says that 18 per cent of 6,486 farmers surveyed have already invested the money in purchasing land in nearby villages.

Around 50 per cent of remaining farmers has also indicated that they intend to invest the compensation money in land.

Education and supporting the family are the other primary purposes for which the farmers want to invest the compensation money, according to the survey.

Some of them have wished to invest the money for agricultural purposes such as cotton weighing machine, tractors, bullocks, digging of wells, drip irrigation, fencing the farms, while others have preferred non-agri-businesses like dairy, poultry farm and corner stores, shows the survey.

The expressway is expected to reduce the travel time between Mumbai and Nagpur from the current 14 to 15 hours to eight hours.