By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The land acquisition process for the Umsning Bypass under the Umiam-Jorabat four lane project is likely to be completed in the next two months.
Talking to The Shillong Times here on Saturday, Ri Bhoi Deputy Commissioner Akashdeep said, “If there is no further objection, then I think we can complete the land acquisition in about two months time.”
The controversy over the project lies in the Umsning stretch as the State government now plans to construct the road from Umsning Bypass while the residents of existing Umsning road want the four-lane to be constructed from the latter.
It may be mentioned that the matter has also been dragged into court thus slowing down the work progress of the project.
According to Akashdeep, corrections in land alignment have been done, reports of which have been submitted and verified after the NHAI carried out a survey for some geometrical improvement.
Earlier, the State Government had to back off on its decision to construct the four-lane from the existing Umsning road following opposition from NGOs who resorted to agitation forcing the authorities to decide in favour of constructing the road from Umsning Bypass.
Now the district administration is likely to issue a notice to land owners and if there is no objection, the administration would pass instruction for the acquisition of land.
The four-laning of NH-40 from Jorabat to Umiam, covering 61.8 km at an estimated cost of Rs 536 crore, started at a brisk pace but hit a stumbling block after differences between the NGOs and the State Government over the acquisition of land from Umsning Bypass.
Meanwhile, the project seems to have picked up some pace as large part of the project has now been completed and black topping of the road is being done in many stretches of the road.
