GUJRAT: The district price assessment committee has notified the rates of the land being acquired for Kharian-Sambrial motorway after a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Safdar Virk.

The prices of land already identified by the National Highway Authority NHA after the realignment in 16 villages of Gujrat tehsil were assessed by the land revenue department.

The work was completed by Additional Deputy Commissioner Revenue Khizer Hayat Bhatti, Gujrat Assistant Commissioner Bilal Zubair, Kharian Assistant Commissioner Zohaib Mushtaq and other officials during the last one week.

It is learnt that the provincial government had also taken notice of the delay in the process and special instructions were issued to the local administration by the chief secretary to expedite the matter. The NHA also had expressed apprehensions of lapsing of the funds in case of further delay in the process.

Now the buildings and forest departments have to submit their reports for payment to the owners of the concrete structures and trees that have to be removed from the route.

The 69km Kharian-Sambrial motorway has been the extension of Lahore-Sialkot M-11 and in the third phase it will be extended from Kharian to Islamabad for which the land acquisition process had already been initiated by the NHA.

In October last year, the alignment of Kharian-Sambrial motorway had to be changed following the irrigation department’s objection to the proposed site of the motorway bridges over Chenab River after it had conducted the model study of the bridges.

Now these bridges will be constructed 5km downstream near the Shahbazpur Bridge of Jalalpur Jattan from the previous location to save the Murala headworks and Sialkot International Airport from dangers of the high floods in the river.

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2024