Work on Mullanpur road halted after ministry’s objection

News Clipping from The Tribune

Work on Mullanpur road halted after ministry’s objection Rajmeet Singh
Tribune News Service

Work on constructing the 200-foot wide Mullanpur-Siswan road has been halted after objections raised by the Central Environment & Forests Ministry. Tribune photo: Vicky Gharu

Mullanpur (Mohali),January 9
The Punjab government has ordered work on widening the Mullanpur-Siswan road to stop after the central environment & forests ministry raised serious objections to the state going ahead with the project without getting its mandatory sanction. The Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA), an agency of the state’s housing & urban development department, had awarded the contract on widening the 8 km long stretch of the road, from the Chandigarh-Mullanpur border (near PGI, Chandigarh) to the Siswan T-junction, to Omaxe, a private builder that is coming up with a major project in the area.
SK Sehrawat, conservator of forests at the ministry, confirmed he had asked for certain information from the state government.
Sources close to the Punjab forest department said the issue was raised at a high-level meeting between officials of the ministry and various state departments. A few days ago the private builder had already begun work on widening the road near its own project. It is learnt a certain area locked under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900 was falling within the road.
“Even if a part of land has been delisted under the Act, permission has to be taken from the ministry regarding nature of land use for which the land was being used”, state forest department officials said.
The ministry had also sought the status of the land that was included in the area of the road. About 150 acres of Mullanpur Garib Dass, Ferozepore Bungar, Parol, Pharongian, Hoshiarpur, Majra and Sultanpur had been acquired. The landowners were paid compensation varying between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.45 crore an acre.
The alignment of the road a few metres ahead of the Siswan-T junction deviates from the existing road. According to the alignment in the master plan, the new road passes near the commercial strip of the major project being developed by Omaxe.