Centre’s patience on land for highways wearing thin

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) could abandon projects in areas of Meghalaya where land acquisition is proving to be too much of a hurdle.

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma recently visited New Delhi and had a meeting with the minister and officials of MoRTH where he was told this.

Speaking to reporters here today, Sangma said that he had a detailed discussion with MoRTH regarding different pending projects in the state.

In many of these, land acquisition has proven to be the major sticking point, with the process not going at the pace that the ministry expected.

Although work on the Western Bypass is almost complete, Sangma said that he told the minister, Nitin Gadkari, “that in other locations also the issue of land acquisition is a problem on a few hundred metres or, at most, a kilometre or two.”

The state government is, therefore, working to expedite the acquisition process.

In other areas, forest clearances have to be obtained but the CM assured Gadkari and almost 90 percent of this has been resolved.

Sangma told reporters that the central government took a very strong stand on the issues of land acquisition to the extent that the minister mentioned that wherever the issue of land acquisition delays work too much, MoRTH might bypass that stretch or even cancel the work, which would affect the overall road structure and convenience for the people.

Landowners often have problems giving up their property for road projects, ranging from the payment not being enough, an unwillingness to part with too much land, or compensatory land not being of sufficient quality/size. The MoRTH threat might persuade a few holdouts to give up.

“I urge our citizens when it comes to such works like highways and road construction, we need all the cooperation and coordination from all the citizens so that we don’t lose out on these projects,” Sangma said. “I urge citizens to try to resolve all these issues. “It is for the good of the state and for the people.”

Meanwhile, the CM also visited several other ministries to discuss projects and funds applicable to Meghalaya.

He had a meeting with the Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Minister and apprised him about the different projects that were pending. He was assured that pending projects will be cleared at the earliest.

Sangma requested DoNER that its guidelines are very complicated and need to be streamlined. Even a rather standard project can sometimes take a year or so just to reach the approval stage, he explained. The DoNER Minister told Sangma that the guidelines are being reexamined.

Sangma also met with the Union Civil Aviation Minister over the state government’s request to allow earlier and later flights to take off and land from Umroi Airport, thereby expanding capacity and improving connections for passengers. “I am very hopeful that this should go through,” the CM said.

He also approved the minister about the heliport projects that are being proposed for Shillong and Tura, as well as the expansion of the runway at the sandbagged Baljek Airport and the possibility of starting flights between Shillong and Tura. “The minister has assured full support in both these aspects,” Sangma said.

Meanwhile, in the CM’s meeting with the Union Minister of State for Rural Development, the state government has urged the ministry to streamline the processes of payments in its projects.

Meghalaya claims to have been performing well in terms of utilization of funds from the ministry, with 1.5 lakh PMAY houses constructed using nearly Rs 1,500 crore from the central government.

“But a lot of funds and pending bills are stuck with the ministry, especially when it comes to the material component and we have urged the ministry to look into that aspect as it does affect the overall payment process as well as implementation of future projects, ”Sangma stated.