Greater Noida: In a setback to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway project , which is chasing an August 2017 deadline, farmers of 39 villages in Gautam Budh Nagar stalled work along the expressway on Sunday. The farmers are seeking an enhanced compensation amounting to four times that of the prevailing circle rates for allowing work to commence.The EPE — a crucial project conceived nearly a decade back for decongesting roads in the national capital — has hit several road blocks in the past, especially from farmers in the area, who were refusing to part with their lands. Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari had in April announced that the e-way would be ready by August 2017. This is the first access-controlled expressway, being constructed at a cost of 4,418 crore. Currently, it is nearly 70% complete.After its completion, vehicles will not have to enter Delhi for mutual transit to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation of the expressway in November 2015.On Sunday, hundreds of farmers from 39 villages held a mahapanchayat in Bil Akbarpur village and announced that they will not let the work commence until their demands were met. "We want the government to give us Rs 5,000 per square meters as compensation as per the new Land Acquisition Act," said a farmer leader, Sunil Fauji. "Presently, we are being given a compensation of Rs 3,500 per square meters, which is not acceptable to us," he said."We also want the government to give us employment, provide us toll-free access, develop our villages," he added. "Only once all our demands are addressed, we will allow the construction work to continue," he said.When TOI contacted G B Nagar district magistrate B N Singh, he said the matter had been brought to his notice. "Our officials are in talks with the farmers. The issue will be resolved at the earliest," Singh said.In Greater Noida, the EPE (a 13-km stretch, across 16 hectares and being constructed by three contractors) will connect near the Yamuna expressway and near the integrated township of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor while on NH-91 (Grand Trunk road) it will connect near Beel Akbarpur.Noida, Greater Noida, Dadri, GT Road, Ghaziabad, Dholana, Hapur will be decongested once the e-way is in place.The expected vehicular movement on the e-way is nearly one lakh per day by 2021.

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