RAWALPINDI: The District Price Assessment Committee has fixed the value of land to be acquired for the Ring Road Project and sent it to the Punjab Board of Revenue for final approval.

After getting the green signal, the process for land acquisition will start, a senior official told Dawn.

Valuation of the land was started after the Punjab government approved the land acquisition PC-I for the Ring Road worth Rs6.7 billion.

According to the new plan, the Ring Road will be 38.3km-long and will start from Banth near Rawat and end in Thalian near the motorway.

The district administration imposed Section 4 in 36 mouzas (villages) of Rawalpindi and Gujar Khan tehsils for the acquisition of land.

Owners to be paid between Rs100,000 and Rs800,000 per kanal if valuation approved, says official

Eight of the villages are located in Gujar Khan - Kaliam Awan, Jhaliyari Bhai Khan, Chanba Papin, Banth, Mohra Mehr Bakhsh, Qutb Ferozwal, Bhagwal Dargai and Hardo Jagi.

There are 28 villages in the Rawalpindi tehsil, including Kaliam Mughal, Losar, Tamar Ratyal, Basali, Banian, Dhaki, Jhada, Hathial, Mera Mohra, Mandhal, Kai Mirbaz, Kheghar Kalan, Bhattian, Noordin, Hoshayial, Mohra Phuphra, Mohra Gar, Kamalpur, Chappar, Khasala Khurd, Meera Kalan, Kohala Maafi and Ghariba.

A senior official of the district administration said the committee fixed the price of land between Rs100,000 to Rs800,000 per kanal. However, the Punjab Board of Revenue is yet to approve the valuation.

He said the price of structure which would come on the route of the road would be announced later.

The project would be launched under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) and the provincial government would provide funds for it.

The official said the government was yet to get back the money paid to people whose land had been acquired along the old alignment of the Ring Road which was canceled on corruption charges.

When contacted, Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Ali confirmed to Dawn that the assessment committee had sent the land valuation for approval to the Punjab Board of Revenue. He said Section 4 had already been imposed to stop sale and purchase of land in the areas.

In reply to a question, the DC said 50pc of the money had been taken back from the owners whose land had been acquired last year from Rawat to Murat.

On the other hand, Commissioner Syed Gulzar Hussain Shah on Saturday visited the site of the Ring Road and inspected the areas where the proposed road would merge into the motorway adjacent to Thalian Interchange.

He asked Nespak to prepare a detailed plan to merge the Ring Road into the motorway at Thalian Interchange, adding that the consultant should also submit a plan and an assessment report on the next 10 years in case traffic from the Ring Road merged into Islamabad-Lahore Motorway.

He said the plan should be submitted within a week so it would be forwarded to the National Highway Authority (NHA) for vetting.

It may be mentioned that the NHA already has expressed reservations over the plan, saying merging traffic would create a rush on the motorway.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2021