LAHORE: Undeterred by the opposition its Orange Line Metro Train Project was facing from stakeholders, including affected residents, civil society and political parties, the Punjab government has announced its plan to acquire more land for the mega scheme worth Rs165 billion.
Since the government had earlier issued a notification to acquire around 1,165-kanal private land, it recently issued another notification to get around 90-kanal more situated in various mauzas for the project.
According to a notification issued on Jan 20, under Section 5 of the Land Acquisition Act-1894, the government will acquire more land in the mauzas of Handoo, Madodanpura, Devipura, Shadipura, Baghbanpura, Kharak, Iqbal Town, Nawankot, Street Scheme, Naulakha, Qila Gujjar Singh, Niaz Beg, Dholanwal, Mozang, Ghassi and Bagrian.
The detail of land in kanal, marla and square-feet mentions 15 marla in Mauza Handoo, 1-kanal, I marla and 184 sqft in Madodanpura, 3 marla and 94 sqft in Devipura, 1 kanal 10 marla and 25 sqft in Shadipura, 8 kanal, 4 marla and 125 sqft in Baghbanpura, 1 kanal and 11 marla in Kharak, 3-kanal and 2 marla in Iqbal Town, 1 kanal and 10 marla in Nawankot, 4 kanal and 5 marla in Multan Road street scheme, 3-kanal 10 marla in Naulakha, 7 kanal and 18 Marla in Qila Gujjar Singh, 12 kanal and 2 marla in Niaz Beg, 1.5 marla in Dholanwal, 3 kanal in Mozang and Rakh Khamba, 26 kanal and 3 marla in Ghassi and 13 kanal and 7 marla in Baggrian Syedan.
“Any person, who has any objection to the acquisition of the land may within 30 days of the publication of the notification file objections in writing before the land acquisition collector posted in the Lahore Development Authority,” the notification titled “Extra Ordinary Issue” that became part of the Punjab Gazette on Jan 22 reads.
According to official sources, because of the additional land that will be acquired for the project, the land acquisition cost has jumped from Rs13.17bn to Rs20bn.
“The reasons behind increase in the land acquisition cost include acquiring more land in addition to 1,165 kanal and a handsome compensation package for Jain Mandir and other central Lahore localities’ (affected) residents,” the official, who requested anonymity, told Dawn.
The District Price Assessment Committee had earlier worked out the cost of private residential and commercial land/property to be acquired for the project, urging the LDA to deposit over Rs13.17bn with the treasury under the head of “Revenue Deposit 3500/3501”.
