Mumbai: The Minister for Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Eknath Shinde, has officially agreed that only 604.54 hectares of land have been acquired out of the total 9573.50 hectares for the Nagpur-Mumbai Samruddhi Corridor.
The state government managed to purchase this land from farmers till October 3. These lands are primarily from Marathwada and Vidarbha, where the farmers have not protested whereas farmers in Shahpur, Sinnar and Igatpuri refused to give up their land to the state and threatened to commit suicide following agitations.
This corridor is Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s baby project, and till now the authorities have managed to acquire only 6.24 per cent of the entire corridor. The deadline for the bhumipoojan too has been postponed from October 1 to January next year due to hurdles in acquiring land from farmers. The minister, however, is optimistic and asserts that farmers will be eager to sell their land since they will be given a huge compensation which is more than what they would have got under the Land Acquisition and Compensation Act 2013. On Wednesday, he said that 5644 farmers have consented to sell their land, amounting to 2750 hectares.
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Kiran Kurundkar, Joint MD, MSRDC, said, “Though there is consent of farmers, the process from consent to sale deed agreement is tedious and time-consuming. We have to check the past record of mutation of agriculture land and if there are any debts over the agriculture land.”
Bhushan Gagrani, Vice-Chairman and MD, MSRDC, said, “Based on the Union government’s recommendation, the South Korean government has agreed to provide a loan of Rs 35,000 crore for the project to the state government. Besides, we are also in talks with Indian banks for providing a soft loan so that the project doesn’t get hampered.”
Gagrani had accompanied the CM during the latter’s recent tour to South Korea. Madan Yerawar, Minister of State (MoS) for MSRDC said that the farmers’ opposition remains in some parts and that farmers are ready to give their land for the prosperous expressway.
What will be the toll amount?
Eknath Shinde said that the toll plaza will be located where the corridor exits and not in the middle of the corridor. He said that according to a 2008 index, the toll rate applied to small vehicles is Rs 0.65 paise/km. Calculated for the 700 km Samruddhi corridor, the toll will be Rs 455 and in 2020 when the corridor is completed, the toll may be Rs 700 for small vehicles. Kurundkar, however, said that the toll amount will be Rs 1400 and later denied it saying that it will be for heavy vehicles.
