GUJRAT: The owners of at least 4,600 acres of land acquired for construction of Kharian-Sambrial motorway (M-12) have not been paid for the last four years since the start of acquisition of their land for the project in 2021-2022.

The work on the project has been mainly suspended for the last one year since the alignment of M-12 route was changed in Gujrat and Sambrial tehsils after objection of the irrigation department to the site of the bridge across the river Chenab.

Though the land acquisition for the project was launched in 2021-22 and work started in July 2022 near Kharian city, the owners of land were not made any payment, said a group of land owners from Kharian and Gujrat tehsils. They said they had raised the issue with the authorities several times and held protests but to no avail. The Gujrat chapter of Jamaat-i-Islami had organised two gatherings of the affected farmers who had sought help a couple of weeks ago. JI emir Ansar Dhool advocate assured the participants of full support for their rights.

A revenue official said that due to the change in alignment of the route, the land acquisition and price assessment in 17 villages of Gujrat tehsil had to be restarted in 2023, leaving the 16 villages previously marked.

He added that the process was completed around five months ago and the matter was pending with the BoR for the formal approval.

He explained that the National Highways Authority had also not yet provided the complete funding for land acquisition and the payment to the land owners could be made only after the BoR approval and complete funding by the NHA.

Sadaqat Chaudhary, the NHA project director for M-12, said authority had already transferred the initially required funds for land acquisition to the accounts of land acquisition collectors but now more funds had been asked by them and the funds would be transferred when the whole scheme would be revised. He explained that M-12 scheme had been in the phase of revision after addition of the third lane in the plan.

“With addition of third lane, the while project needed a revision due to the requirement of additional funds as different departments of the federal government have been processing the revision,” Mr Chaudhary said and added that hopefully all the processing of revision might be completed within the next three months.

It is learnt that Deputy Commissioner Safdar Virk has also directed to the land revenue department to convene a joint meeting of the NHA, land acquisition collectors and other authorities concerned to review the progress on the matter.

The site plan of 34km of the motorway in Gujrat and Sambrial tehsils was changed out of the total 69km section of the M-12. The construction work on 35km in Gujrat and Kharian tehsils was launched initially. Due to a change in the alignment, the land acquisition plan in at least 17 out of total 28 villages of Gujrat tehsil and around 12 of total 14 villages of Sambrial had been changed.

The main motorway is 60km long, while a 9km-long portion of the link road (also part of the motorway) will be built to connect M-12 with the GT Road near Bismillah Chowk, Kharian.

The federal government has to provide the cost of land. The total estimated cost of the project (two lanes) was Rs42bn whereas the contractor firm -- the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) would bear the cost of construction. It is being executed on built, operate and transfer (BOT) mode as a public-private partnership and 4,600 acres of land in 64 villages of two districts is to be used in the project.

The M-12 will be expanded up to Islamabad and it would be the shortest route between Lahore and Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2025