RAWALPINDI: The controversy surrounding the Rawalpindi Ring Road project refuses to die down, as now the record of the land to be acquired for the project in tehsil Gujar Khan has reportedly gone missing.

A senior district administration official told Dawn that the land record of a mouza (village) in Gujar Khan adjacent to tehsil Rawalpindi is reported missing which has created hurdles in maintaining the record for land acquisition for the Ring Road.

“In 2002, the record room for the district judicial and land revenue cases caught fire and it could have been destroyed. However, three assistant commissioners have been tasked to check the record from land revenue officials in the relevant tehsil,” the official added.

He said that the Gujar Khan assistant commissioner has been assigned the duty of checking the record of Banth to Qutb Ferozwala in Gujar Khan. The Saddar AC will check the record from Losar to Mian Ahmada, and the Cantonment AC will review the land record from Khasala Khurd to Thalian.

Land record of a Gujar Khan village missing; ACs tasked to review revenue record

Commissioner Liaquat Ali Chatha, however, denied the unavailability of the land record. He said that the land acquisition has not yet started, but some land was acquired in the past.

The land revenue department will provide the relevant record to the Project Management Unit soon, he added.

Land acquisition process

On the other hand, the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) land branch and district land revenue department started the survey of the area.

The process of land acquisition has not started yet. The RDA officials sought the help of the district administration to guide the authority about the price for the land acquisition.

“In the initial survey, land of 36 villages will come in the project. Eight villages (mouzas) are in Gujar Khan and the remaining are in Rawalpindi tehsil.

The complete survey will inform about the land and structure affected by the project,“ the RDA official said.

He said that the district price assessment committee fixed the price of land and section 4 was imposed in March 2022 but the prices of land changed across the district.

However, in a meeting with Thalian residents, Commissioner Chatha assured them that the government would acquire their land at commercial rates.

The residents of the villages on the route from G.T. Road to the Motorway whose land is expected to come in the project were worried about the price of land as there were reports that the government would acquire the land at old rates, even though the prices had increased manifold over the past year.

According to last year’s plan, the RRR project is a 38.3 Km controlled access road which originates from National Highway (N-5) at Banth crosses through Chakbeli Road, Adiala Road, Chakri Road, and terminates at Motorway M-2 at Thallian Interchange.

The total cost of the project is Rs33.7 billion, including Rs27 billion for construction, and Rs6.7 billion for land acquisition while the total length of the main carriageway is 38.3km. The civil works include fencerow (90m), grade-separated interchanges, bridges, underpasses, toll plazas, and weighbridges.

Published in Dawn, September 8th, 2023