GHAZIABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the Delhi-Saharanpur-Dehradun Economic Corridor in Dehradun, cutting travel time between the capital and the hill city from four to six hours to just two-and-a-half. But on the Delhi side, a legal dispute over 1,600 sqm of land in Loni’s Mandola continues to hold up a key stretch and a ramp.The disputed plot, which includes a two-storey house spread over 561 sqm, sits squarely in the middle of the 16-km elevated section between UP Gate in Loni and the Eastern Peripheral Expressway at Khekra, precisely where the National Highways Authority of India had planned to construct a ramp to provide local connectivity to Mandola and Loni on the otherwise access-controlled corridor.
A signboard behind the crash barrier overlooking the house now states, “The matter is sub judice in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court”
A signboard behind the crash barrier overlooking the house now states, “The matter is sub judice in the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court”.The dispute has its roots in 1998, when the UP Housing Board acquired 2,614 acres from farmers across six villages for its Mandola Vihar Housing Scheme at Rs 1,100 per sqm. Over 94% of the roughly 1,000 affected farmers accepted compensation. Among those who refused was Veersen Saroha, who held out over the question of enhanced compensation and filed a case in the Allahabad High Court in 2007. The UP Housing Board, unable to resolve the dispute, delineated Saroha’s land in its 214th board meeting in 2010.The corridor project was announced in 2020, and the UP Housing Board allowed NHAI to proceed with the land even as the litigation remained unresolved.
Veersen Saroha’s house sits on the Delhi side of the expressway
In Nov 2017, the highway through Mandola had already been designated as National Highway 709B, further complicating the picture. The case has since moved to the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court. It was last heard on March 26 this year, after which the bench was dissolved. NHAI’s counsel said the matter will only be taken up once a new bench is constituted.Veersen’s daughter-in-law Puja Saroha said they are not opposed to a resolution. “In the larger interest, we want to get out of this, and now that the expressway has opened, it has become all the more necessary. All we want is fair compensation, and for that we are fighting the case,” she said.
Due to the uneven gradient, the stretch has become accident prone
On the ground, the unbuilt ramp has already begun extracting a cost. Jaipal (46) has been posted as a guard at the house by its owners since Nov 2022 and says the stretch has become accident-prone. “Due to the uneven gradient, I have seen vehicles overturn,” he said. With the expressway now open, he expects the situation to worsen. “Now, I will have to bear the sound of vehicles round the clock. I don’t know how long I will have to be on guard.”An NHAI official overseeing the stretch confirmed that the agency has been aware of the problem since the corridor opened for a trial in Jan, when accident reports from the spot began coming in. “The ramp needs to be constructed at the earliest, but since it is caught in litigation, there is nothing we can do. We have erected crash barriers,” the official said.The UP Housing Board officials, meanwhile, refused to comment on the case, saying it is ‘sub judice’.
