Meerut: An additional two months have been granted by the state government to local administrations of Meerut and Ghaziabad to complete land acquisition for the Delhi-Meerut expressway. The 74 km long expressway, built at an estimated cost of Rs 7,566 crore, now stares at a much delayed date of completion.Of the 19 villages from which land was to be acquired in Ghaziabad, residents of 12 have contested the amounts of compensation and the matter is under arbitration. Similarly, additional land which was to be acquired in Meerut has also not been acquired.The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) which had earlier set itself a deadline of March 2018 for completion has now stopped giving deadlines. Sources within the NHAI told TOI that it will take 2.5 years after the construction contract is awarded to complete the project. The construction contract can only be awarded once land acquisition is complete.“There is bound to be delay. Land acquisition is not complete in many parts of Ghaziabad and Meerut. A new request has been sent for additional land to be acquired. Then, there are other matters which are up for arbitration. Villagers have been asking for more compensation. The construction contract has not been awarded yet. It will take another 2.5 years to build it. There is no way in which the revised deadline of December 2018 can be kept,” said a source within the NHAI.PM Modi had laid the foundation stone for the 14-lane expressway in December 2015, terming it a “highway to development”. But the much touted expressway to decongest the existing NH-58, from Delhi to Meerut, has been falling behind deadlines. Upset over the slow progress, the PM had, on November 2016, expressed strong displeasure after NHAI announced that the deadline for completion was pushed from March 2018 to December 2018.“Land acquisition is still pending in many areas. There was an additional request for acquiring land from nine more villages and we are in the process of working this out,” said Manju Lata, additional district Magistrate (land acquisition), Meerut.Acquisition of land in Ghaziabad is similarly incomplete. “There are many villages where the compensation amount given to residents is under dispute and the arbitration process is going on. We will resolve it soon,” said DP Srivastav, additional district Magistrate (land acquisition), Ghaziabad.

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