If it came up, it was set to be one of the country?s most ambitious expressway projects. The 267 kms-long Ambala Rohtak Bawal expressway project has unfortunately been put on a back burner by the Haryana government.
While the project was announced with much pomp and show by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) in April, it now seems there shall be no groundwork happening for the next few months or even a year. Senior officials at HSIIDC contend that the delay in the project is due to the announcement of the new Central resettlement and rehabilitation policy on Oct 11.
Notably, the policy, announced by the Centre, pertains to the issues related to land acquisition by state governments or private developers for various projects and the way compensation should be worked out for oustees. Any land acquisition that shall now happen will have to take into cognizance of the new guidelines that come into force.
As for the proposed ARB expressway of about 267 Kms from Ambala to Bawal, 6600 acres of land was required. The total cost of the project had been estimated at Rs 4400 crore. The objective of the expressway was to develop a vertical axis right from the Rajasthan border on NH 8 near Bawal upto the Punjab border on NH 22 north of Ambala.
This would have opened the industrially backward areas of Kaithal, Jind, Rohtak, Bhiwani and Mahindergarh for
investments. This would have also enabled vertical integration of the NCR with the northern part of the state besides easing vehicular pressure on the roads within NCR.
It is pertinent to mention that the plan for ARB expressway had come up after the success of the KMP expressway project. The construction work for 135.6 km-long western peripheral expressway, also known as the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal expressway, is now going on at full swing. The total cost of the KMP expressway project has been pegged at about Rs 1,915 crore.
