The Punjab government has decided to restart the land acquisition process for the Gulberg-Babu Sabu elevated motorway, a key urban infrastructure project in Lahore, and has urged the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) to complete it as soon as possible.
According to the sources, the work was halted in 2017 due to substantial opposition from inhabitants of Gulberg, Gulshan-i-Ravi, and Shadman, as well as other villages, to the proposed building, among other difficulties.
The project’s cost has now reached significantly from Rs18 billion to Rs85 billion.
Talking to the media, an LDA officer said, “We have started contacting the affected people whose land, mostly houses, was marked and enlisted in the award list in 2016 under the Land Acquisition Act. We are requesting them to visit the LDA offices or the respective officers (of the revenue department) and receive their compensation as decided in 2016.”
He added?that the land purchase (801 kanal) procedure began in 2016 and that the final award under the land acquisition laws was announced in 2017.
Although some were compensated, the majority of them declined. Those who had received compensation had not yet turned over possession to the government.
?“The package they (the landowners) had demanded was based on the pattern of hefty compensation given to the affectees of the land acquisition for the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train Project.
It included the price of the property as per market rates, disturbance allowance, relocation allowance etc. But the government didn’t entertain their request,” he noted.
Moreover, the official?claimed that?the administration was forced to abandon the proposal in 2017.
The conclusion of the Panama case and NAB criminal proceedings against bureaucrats were among the reasons for the plan’s cancellation, he said, adding that?the PTI government overlooked the execution of various projects in Lahore and other major cities throughout the country. However, it began considering this concept at the beginning of the year 2022. ?