Days before launch by PM, protest threat looms on EPE

GHAZIABAD: Ahead of the inauguration of the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) by the Prime Minister on May 27, farmers from 18 Ghaziabad villages, whose land was acquired for the expressway, have threatened to launch a protest.
The agitating farmers have called a mahapanchayat on Thursday to decide on the course of action. For quite some time, the farmers have been demanding that a service lane be built along the 15km stretch adjoining these villages.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has agreed to the demand, but with just four days left for the inauguration, the farmers have begun accusing NHAI of lacking seriousness, alleging that barring a few stretches, work on the service lane has not started yet.

“Recently, we had met district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari and apprised her of our apprehensions — that the service lane work promised to us by NHAI is not moving at the desired pace, and that we fear the project could get buried once the EPE is inaugurated,” said Manoj Nagar, a farmer.

“We were assured by the DM that she will talk to NHAI, but so far, nothing concrete has happened. So we are holding a mahapanchayat in Rewara village on Thursday to decide on further course of action,” he added.

“Out of about 15km of service lane promised, NHAI has so far approved only two stretches of 6.6km and 5.5km, and we are being assured that the entire stretch will be completed in four month’s time. But we suspect this will happen,” said Mehar Singh of Duhai village. “The service lane is very important to us, because after EPE is opened to public, we’ll be marooned, with practically no connectivity with the rest of the villages. Only the service lane could give us that connectivity, so we’re agitating for it,” he added.

Close to 5,000 farmers from 18 villages in Ghaziabad had parted with 344 hectares of land for the EPE project. At the time, these farmers had placed a demand for a 15km service lane, running parallel to the EPE, which NHAI had grudgingly accepted.

Of the 135km EPE, 27.7km of road between Palwal and Kundli falls under Ghaziabad.

The EPE enters Ghaziabad at 33.16km from Bihiing village, and after passing through 16 villages, enters Gautam Budh Nagar district after Arifpur village.