Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) is roping in communication experts to facilitate better communication with villagers in order to successfully carry out the land acquisition process for the 800-km long Mumbai-Nagpur Super Expressway.
“What we have observed is that there are many infrastructure projects which are delayed only because of problems related to land acquisition for the project. At times, the implementing agency is not able to communicate to the project-affected people what it is that they are offering in exchange of them giving land for the projects,” said an MSRDC bureaucrat.
MSRDC is currently roping in consultants to prepare detailed project report (DPR) for which the work has been divided in five divisions namely Nagpur, Amravati, Marathwada, Nashik and Mumbai division. MSRDC is planning to take the land-pooling route to encourage more farmers to give their land. The plan is to return 22.5 per cent of developed land with monetary compensation along the proposed expressway.
“Once the DPR is finalised we will have the exact alignment of the project in hand and later we can start the procedure for acquiring land for the project. In this, we will use various maps to identify the feasibility of alignment and after which we send proposals to the local district collector for acquiring land in their districts. In the procedure there are times where mediators fool the villagers by giving them wrong or incomplete information on the compensation one will get for giving away their land. Hence, the communication experts will help us to avoid this kind of mischief,” the MSRDC bureaucrat said.
The estimated cost of the six-lane expressway is Rs 30,000 crore. It will connect the financial capital of the country with Nagpur and will also pass through backward areas of the state such as Sinnar, Jalna, Shendra, Waluj, Wardha and Amravati.
“The same model has been experienced by the Gujarat government and the Central government for infrastructure projects in the National Capital Region (NCR) around Delhi, by hiring private communication experts and we will follow the same,” added the bureaucrat.
