No immediate plan to acquire land for metro: Guj govt tells HC

In a temporary relief to residents of Vejalpur area here, Gujarat government today told the High Court that it has no immediate plan to acquire land from the area for the proposed North-South corridor of metro rail project.
After the government's assurance, the Gujarat High Court bench of Justices Harsha Devani and G B Shah kept the further hearing in the case for February 2.
On behalf of the government, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi sought more time to respond in detail about other contentions raised by Vejalpur residents earlier.
The state government told the court today that it would take a couple of months for the actual construction to start by the Metro-Link Express for Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad (MEGA) Company and hence there is no need for residents to panic at present.

Government's reply came following a petition filed last week by 22 residents of Vejalpur, who alleged that acquisition of their properties, including houses and shops, by MEGA is not in accordance with Land Acquisition Act, 2013.
These 22 petitioners are the residents of two societies located near Jivraj over-bridge in Vejalpur area from where the North-South elevated corridor starts.

The petitioners claimed that they will lose their houses and shops due to the metro project in that area.
In their petition, these residents claimed that state-owned MEGA, which is undertaking the project of metro rail, is not ready to provide anything beyond the cash compensation against the acquisition of their properties, which is a violation of new Land Act.

According to petitioners, in addition to the cash compensation, resettlement and rehabilitation were also a part of the original scheme of compensation. However, MEGA had told them recently that rehabilitation and resettlement is not part of compensation, the petition said.
Further, the petitioners claim that the Social Impact Assessment Study, conducted by two agencies for MEGA, is not accurate and not conducted as per the provisions of Land Acquisition Act.