The NHAI has to acquire total 45 hectares land in Dera Baba Nanak for both the corridor roads and the ICP. (File)The NHAI has issued a fresh notification for the acquisition of land for the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Dera Baba Nanak. The notification, dated January 31, was advertised on Tuesday thereby giving landowners the stipulated 21 days, till February 26, to submit their objections.
While activities related to the Kartarpur Corridor on the Indian side have so far been limited to visits by officials of different departments of the Union and the state government, work on the Pakistan side, according to their media reports, is almost 40 per cent complete. The NHAI has to acquire total 45 hectares land in Dera Baba Nanak for both the corridor roads and the ICP. Total 21.23 hectare land will be required for ICP, which is in addition to land to be acquired for the 4.25 km-long corridor road — for which a notification was published on January 23.
Farmers whose land is to be acquired for the corridor roads can submit their objections till February 13.
Suba Singh, a farmer whose 3.5 acres of land is required for corridor roads, said: “We will submit the objections in a day or two. We have been consulting lawyers to make our objections. All farmers will submit objections collectively.”
“We have been in touch with farmers and listening to their grievances. We will do everything to satisfy them before the land acquisition,” said DC Gurdaspur, Vipul Ujjwal.
Punjab government has also been planning to acquire the land at Dera Baba Nanak.
Dera Baba Nanak Municipal Council president Parmeet Singh Bedi said: “Punjab government may require around 20 acres of land in Dera Baba Nanak for the development of infrastructure to manage the crowd that will come due to corridor.”
Asked about the possibility of the deadline for the project being missed, an official said on condition of anonymity: “The construction can only start after land acquisition will be completed. It is a lengthy process.”
Talking to The Indian Express, Mahinder Pal Singh, a member of Punjab Assembly in Pakistan, said, “Around 40 per cent construction work of corridor is completed (in Pakistan). I am going to suggest Pakistan government that corridor should be opened on September 22, the death anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib is his resting place. I am satisfied with the pace of construction work in Pakistan.”
According to a recent report in Dawn newspaper, Pakistan has been constructing roads from the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur to the Indo-Pak border, an immigration terminal and extension of the temple.
“The bed of a 1.10 km road has been completed from Gurdwara to the River Ravi whereas work on the construction of the bridge on the Ravi River is underway. Also, work on the 2.25 km road from the River Ravi to the border is also going on,” read the report published on February 1.
