LAHORE: The landowners whose land was acquired for the Firdous Market underpass in May have yet to receive compensation mainly due to the slow land acquisition and announcement of the award by Lahore city district and divisional administrations and the Board of Revenue (BoR).

“The government has yet to pay us for our land they acquired for the underpass. We reminded the officials many a time, but to no avail,” says Ms Rafique, of Gulberg, whose house’s some area (abutting the main road) has been demarcated for acquisition.

“It has really become a headache for us, as the labourers are also working at the site,” she added, requesting the authorities to complete the land acquisition process and construction works at their earliest.

The civil work on over Rs1.55bn Firdous market underpass project (including land acquisition) was launched formally in the first week of June after Chief Minister Usman Buzdar laid the foundation stone of the project on May 18. Though the LDA told the chief minister about completion of the project in 120 days (four months), he sought its accomplishment in three months (till Sept 5).

The project’s components included construction of underpass, laying new sewer/water supply and drainage lines, shifting of services, drains, and boundary walls at the site. The land required for service and slip roads was identified and planned to be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Though the process to acquire the land started in May, payments have yet to be made since the award under the act has not been announced so far.

On the other hand, the LDA started construction work to complete the project on time and open for the public at large.

“The construction work will not complete on time, as the land acquisition is a major issue,” an official said.

“Had the offices of the DC, commissioner and the BoR completed the process by announcing the award for land acquisition, the LDA would have given compensation to the landowners and started construction of the project. Though the project is heading fast towards completion, the issue of service roads’ completion due to delayed land acquisition is causing delay in the overall completion of the project.”

The official said giving compensation to the residents in such a situation seemed difficult, so the completion of the project may take one month more.

“However, the test drive at the underpass’s portion is likely to be done in a day or two,” he said, adding rain also affected the pace of work.

LDA land acquisition collector Khurram Mukhtar Bhangoo said the BoR was delaying the issue.

“The total cost of the land (seven kanals) is Rs450 million. We, on our part, have

completed the process and forwarded it to the authorities concerned (office of the DC),” he added.

He said the BoR raised some queries related to cost of the land in view of the nature of the land (commercial, residential etc). And subsequently, the file was sent back to the office of commissioner, DC and the LDA. At present the file is with the commissioner.

Both the DC and the commissioner were not available for comment.

Published in Dawn, September 5th, 2020