Maharashtra mulls Andhra style land acquisition

The Maharashtra government is considering adopting the Andhra pattern of land acquisition for Mumbai-Nagpur super communication highway, where farmers will be the main stakeholders.

The Andhra government had acquired 30,000 hectare land for its new capital, Amravati, within 60 days, without opposition from farmers as it provided non-agricultural (NA) developed land out of the total acquired from farmers. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said this would boost the economy of the backward region.

Mr Fadnavis on Thursday held a meeting with Maharashtra State Road Transport Development (MSRDC) at Mantralaya, where a presentation was made about the proposed alignment of the super communication highway before him. Mr Fadnavis in principle approved a tentative plan and said that it would be a value addition for agriculture with huge potential for employment generation. This 690km Expressway will connect 20 districts of Marathwada, Vidarbha and Nashik with all tourist and pilgrimage destinations, said Mr Fadnavis.

Minister for MSRDC, Eknath Shinde, said that the alignment was preliminary and would change according to demand and need of the hour. “It will be a 742km four-lane greenfield highway. Twenty-three townships will be developed alongside the highway after every 40km distance,” he said.

Mr Shinde said that the focus of the project would be the farmer and farmers would be stakeholders of the project. “Farmers whose land will be acquired for the project will get more benefit and we are working on it. Our team of officers recently visited Amravati, proposed new capital of Andhra, to study its land acquisition pattern,” he said.

Another senior official from MSRDC said that the Andhra government had offered 25 per cent developed land to project-affected farmers out of the total land acquired from them for the project. Andhra had assured farmers that it would compensate Rs 30,000 per acre for barren land and Rs 50,000 per acre for irrigated land that would be acquired, he said. Mr Shinde said that they were also considering various options including NA land along with compensation equivalent to expected yield from the farms. The super communication highway will require total 5,000 hectare land. Each township will require 400 hectare land in which there will be dedicated space for agro-based business.