National Highway projects: Govt to return unused land to original owners, mulls amendments

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The central government mulls amendment in law to include an important provision to return land acquired for national highway development if it remains unused for five years. This is to speed up the construction of national highways and avoid legal hurdles in land acquisition.

The land acquisition notification will be cancelled (denotify) and the land will come back to the owners. Once the compensation is determined, the landowners can raise objections (if any) within three months. The Ministry of Road Transport has submitted the proposal for the amendment to the law to the Union Cabinet. This is after examining the provisions with the departments of Civil Aviation, Railways, Defence, Shipping, Coal, Environment, Law and Revenue. After the Cabinet approves the bill, it will be presented in Parliament.

Once the land acquisition notification for the national highway is issued, building construction on that land will be prohibited. The government has noted many buildings popping up in such places with eyes on higher compensation.

A special online portal will be set up to publish notices and notifications related to land acquisition. This will be beneficial for landowners as well to ensure transparency.

The compensation amount will be determined through arbitration by calculating the market value of the land. This is to avoid lengthy court cases.

Out of the 16.6 hectares of land notified for the Tripunithura bypass (8 km), part of the Madurai-Kochi National Highway, 4.43 hectares were acquired and compensation was paid. Works in the remaining 12.17 hectares were frozen. Because of this, the 217 families who own these properties have been in distress for 34 years. They are unable to build a house, take out a loan, or transfer land.

Meanwhile, the Public Works Department has announced that all other national highway developments in the state for which land has been acquired are progressing.