NHAI handed Pachgaon land to shift Kherki toll
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has conveyed to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to acquire 30.5 acres of land in Pachgaon to reallocate the Kherki Daula toll plaza. It has created hopes amongst residents living around the expressway who have been demanding this for a long time. GMDA has informed the highways authority that all obstacles in acquiring the new land has been resolved, and only 0.4 acres of land is to be acquired now which is explained as “insignificant patch”.
As stated by the officials of GMDA, NHAI can start their toll construction work on 30.5 acres of land, as the permission for the same has been taken from the forest department. The Pachgaon toll plaza will have 28 lanes which is three more than that of Kherki Daula Toll.
NHAI officials stated that the construction of Pachgaon toll plaza will get start once the soil testing will be completed. It will take minimum 3 months to complete the project once the soil testing is done.
Shifting of toll plaza from Kherki Daula to Pachgaon was the demand of the people residing in nearby locations that usually got trapped in the traffic jams and have to give road tax which they find illogical.
Union minister, Nitin Gadkari had made announcement in August, 2017 that toll would get shifted once the state government identifies land for it. Gadkari recently stated that the expressway would be ready by next year and before that the toll plaza will get shifted. Another politician MLA Rakesh Daultabad had tweeted that the shifting of toll would get shifted by 31 March.
MLA said that “My team and I have been camping in Chandigarh since then. Of the total 40 acres, matters related to four small land parcels were under litigation. One matter is still in court, but that is not an obstacle,”
GMDA officials stated that out of the 40 acres land, the toll plaza could be constructed on 30.9 acres of land and the left over area of land can be used to construct metro station.
One of the senior officials said “We had already offered 30.9 acres to NHAI for the construction of the toll plaza with 28 lanes. The design has also been prepared in consultation with NHAI. There were some court restrictions, because of which the land could not be handed over to NHAI physically until now,”
He added that “All encumbrances on the site have now been cleared, except for an insignificant patch of 0.4 acres. The land parcel of 30.5 acres is now being offered to NHAI for constructing the toll plaza in Pachgaon. We have written to the NHAI chairman to take over the land,”.