3 yrs on, slum dwellers hold up road widening work

Nagpur: Encroachments have slowed down road widening works across the city. The 600-metre patch connecting Geetanjali Talkies on Central Avenue to Rajwada Palace near Gandhisagar Lake is a glaring example of how they are disrupting development works.
“A project to widen the Geetanjali Talkies Road to Rajwada Palace, which would serve as a crucial link between East Nagpur and North Nagpur, proposed three years ago has hit a roadblock with the municipal corporation finding it difficult to remove the encroachments,” said traffic experts.
The widening project is expected to reduce the travel time for motorists bound from South to Central or North Nagpur.
About 29 slum dwellers, who have encroached upon a major chunk of land on this road, are causing hurdles for the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to carry out the road widening. “For another 458.94 sq metre land, the civic body has approached the district collector seeking possession of the state government land which is currently leased out to 11 different property holders,” confirmed a senior official from NMC’s project department.
As part of its road widening project, the NMC’s Standing Committee had given nod to widen the DP road in 2013. Subsequently, a project management consultant (PMC), Axykno Capital Services Limited, was entrusted with the task of preparing a detailed project report (DPR) for the road. The NMC paid Rs5 lakh to the firm. Currently, the road is quite narrow, and at many places, only a single two-wheeler can pass at any given time due to encroachments.
On completion of the work on the 600 metre stretch, the DP road would be 18 feet wide with a stormwater drain network on either side.
As per the DPR, the firm identified 40 properties needed to be acquired by the NMC for widening work at an estimated cost of Rs14.50 crore. However, of the 40 properties mentioned in the DPR, NMC would require part possession of lands from the 11 property owners, who are lease holders of state government land and the slum dwellers who reportedly encroached even a portion of nullah, which is totally covered now.
NMC has already approached the district collectorate for the 458.94 sq metre government land. But, the biggest hurdle is the slum dwellers. Though illegal, a corporation official said the widening work has not been taken up as those who have encroached upon the road have a strong political support and as a result they were possessing photopass of a notified slums.
The civic body requires around Rs4.50 crore for infrastructure development work like road widening, but after considering compensation amount of the encroachers, the cost of the project has reached Rs14.5 crore.
Though the PMC had not carried out any survey, it has suggested the NMC to keep Rs5 lakh reserve for shifting underground utilities. “They are not entitled to any compensation, but since they have a photopass, NMC will have to rehabilitate them,” sources said.
Mayor Pravin Datke said that the encroachments on the land for the proposed road would not hamper the work. He said that the work would commence soon. To a query, he said that slums which came before the year 2000 would be rehabilitated.