South West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner SK Marak has asked the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (NHIDCL) to finalise the list of landowners, whose areas fall under National Highway alignment, for the two-lane Tura bypass project.
The district administration along with NHIDCL on Thursday held a preliminary discussion with stakeholders with regard to the construction of the two-lane Tura bypass on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.
The DC, during the meeting, noted the concerns raised by the representatives and Nokmas of Ballongre, Upper Damalgre, Rongbakgre and Gambagre villages, whose areas are likely to be acquired for this infrastructural development.
Assuring compensation as per assessment from Revenue Branch to anyone’s whose agro-forestry assets come under the prescribed alignment, the deputy commissioner sought support and cooperation from the representatives and exhorted them to disseminate awareness among the landowners in their respective villages.
He also asked the NHIDCL to finalise the list of landowners, whose areas fall under National Highway alignment, and notify the district administration before holding any meeting with the landowners in future.
During the meeting, the village representatives stressed on the need to be consulted before finalising the National Highway alignment.Rerapara BDO, RZD Shira, suggested the NHIDCL to note down the concerns and opinions of the village representatives and try to address them so as to avert any issue that may arise.
Revealing the difficulties faced in order to get good alignment in hilly areas, Highway Engineer of G-Engineering, Kumar Shanu, said that making drastic changes to the best alignment with improved geometrics, as per everyone’s wishes, is quite unlikely.
He reasoned that preparing a road map requires numerous surveys from outside the state, which involve heavy costs.Stating that the construction costs of highway projects are as per the normative cost circular issued by NHAI, he informed that apart from time consumption in such topographical surveys, there are other factors like dense vegetation and valley that make the work more tedious.
The national highway, which is to be constructed in South West Garo Hills as part of the project, involves a length of 6.350 kms through the aforesaid villages. The tentative area that would need to be acquired is 25.0 hectare (under SWGH), whereas the proposed Right of Way is 30.0 m.
