Gurugram Metro land acquisition pushed as depot sites face delays

Around 14,000 square yards of private land in Kanhai, Islampur and Basai is still needed before work can move ahead on key parts of Gurugram Metro’s first phase.

At a high-powered committee meeting in Chandigarh on Friday, Haryana chief secretary Anurag Rastogi directed GMDA, HSVP, the Gurugram district administration and NHAI to speed up land acquisition and shift utilities along the corridor. The land is required for the depot, stations and track laying.

Two landowners in Islampur and Basai have agreed to sell, but other negotiations remain unresolved. Some owners have sought more compensation, jobs in the metro project in exchange for land, or additional time to give consent.

Rastogi also asked Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam to transfer land occupied by a 220kV substation in Sector 33, within the proposed depot site, to Gurugram Metro Rail Limited. Between Hero Honda Chowk and Umang Bhardwaj Chowk, four houses in Saraswati Enclave and a Haryana City Gas CNG station remain in the project’s path.

The dispute involving the houses is listed before the Punjab and Haryana High Court on August 31; the CNG station matter is due for hearing on August 24. NHAI is aiming to shift an electricity substation along the alignment by December 31.