Squatters in way of FNG e-way removed

NOIDA: To speed up work on the Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad (FNG) corridor, the Noida Authority conducted a demolition drive to remove encroachments and fast-track the project. On Wednesday, nearly 8,000 square metres of government land was flattened and freed by the anti-encroachment team from the Sector 139 area.
According to officials, the demolition drive was launched around 2pm amid heavy police presence."About 30 illegal constructions on the land were razed to the ground," said B K Singh, project engineer and work circle in-charge (7), Noida. "More than 200 plots carved out by illegal colonizers were also cleared," he said.
According to officials, the encroached land falls in the flood zone area, where no construction is allowed. This encroachment was also hampering the construction of the expressway. "About 7.5km of the FNG corridor was being affected by the encroachment and we were not able to make progress," Singh said. The authority has already completed work on 9km of the total 19.9km stretch which falls in Noida's jurisdiction.
The Rs 1,000-crore, 56-km-long FNG expressway has faced several hurdles in the past as farmers refused to give up their land for the project. The corridor has also been occupied by the land mafia and squatters, before being freed by the Authority following frequent anti-encroachment drives.
Once complete, the much-awaited FNG expressway will provide fast connectivity to daily commuters of the area. Of its total length, about 19.9km falls in Noida-Greater Noida region, 8km in Ghaziabad, while the remaining 28.1km is in the Faridabad region. According to the plan, FNG from the Noida side is expected to become operational in the next 14 months while it would take three years for the whole stretch to become fully operational.The FNG was planned way back in 1989 and work started on it in 1993.