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Punjab Planning and Development Board (PPDB) has given the green signal to start land acquisition for the revised project of Rawalpindi Ring Road and approved the PC-I worth Rs6.7 billion.
Land worth Rs380 million had been acquired for the Ring Road project in Rawalpindi district, however, following reports of corruption the land acquisition was cancelled.
However, the district administration is yet to recover money from the landowners which it had paid to them for acquiring land on the old route of the Ring Road from Radio Pakistan to Murat and Sangjani.
So far, the district administration has recovered around Rs60 million from landowners and transferred the land back to them.
In early August, Commissioner Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah cancelled the land acquisition for the project. Under Section 48(1) of the Land Acquisition Act 1894, the amount paid to landowners for acquisition of land undertaken along the entire length of the illegally advertised alignment falling in Rawalpindi and Attock districts would be recovered.
He said that the Punjab government had asked the administration to coordinate with Rawalpindi Development Authority to start the process of land acquisition as per the new approved route.
As per the new route, the 38.3-km-long new route will start from Banth near Rawat and end at Thalian near the motorway.
“New price assessment will be made after imposing section 4 in the area to stop people from sale and purchase of land,” he said.
According to Dawn, a senior official of RDA told that after the approval of the PC-I for land acquisition of Ring Road, work on land acquisition had been started.
“A meeting of all patwaris (land revenue officials) was held in RDA offices on Sunday and the Director Land asked them to submit the details of land to the RDA,” he said.
He said the Punjab government would provide funds for the project as it would be constructed under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
However, in the current fiscal year, no fund has been allocated for the project.
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