Rawalpindi Ring Road Update: Questions Arise over Land Acquisition

Rawalpindi: The Rawalpindi District administration needs a total of 5,158 kanals and 15 marla for the entire Ring Road project. The road is a total 38.3 km with land possession of only 10 km yet.

At the moment, the progress of the project hasn’t slowed and work is on schedule at the Chkablei Interchange and the Khasala Kurd.

According to the plan, the Rawalpindi Ring Road project will originate from National Highway (N-5) near Banth. Banth is located near the village of Pakistan’s first Nishan-e-Haider Capt. Sarwar Shaheed. The village is named as Sarwar Shaheed Sanghori. The ring road route near Banth goes towards Chakbeli road, Adyala Road, and Chakri road. After chakri Road, the ring road ends at the M-2 Motorway near the Thallian interchange.

It was estimated that the total cost of the project was approximately Rs 33.7 billion. This includes both the cost of construction, which is estimated to be around Rs 27 billion, and the cost of land acquisition which is almost Rs 6.7 billion.

The Rawalpindi Ring Road project was started in September, 2023 and is scheduled to complete in June next year. Massive sectors of land had been acquired for this purpose. The in-depth details of land acquisition are in the Punjab Gazette and last year, Section 4 came into effect prohibiting the sale and purchase of this land.

However, the administration has not provided the land to the industrialists on the government rate now which has stirred up some problems. On the other hand, they have instructed them to purchase the land from the private sector.

Initially, Industrialists were to be given this land for the construction of Industrial units, schools, and universities alongside the RRR. As per the requirements, the project requires a hefty 51 kanals and 9 marla from the (mauza) village Kaliyam Awan, Mandra located in Tehseel Gujar Khan. Kalyam Awan is also opposite to Sarwar Shaheed Sanghori and is almost 5 kilometres from Mandra. Similarly, a total of 53 kanal and 12 marla is required from Chalhari Bahal Khan while another 99 kanal 7 marla was required from the Mauza Banth.

Residents of Banth, and Kaliyam were worried that a lot of their land was coming under the project’s map. They expect that a reasonable rate would be paid for their land. However,sources suggest that the government is still paying them old rates even though the rates have massively increased over the years.

Sources suggest that an average of 6 lac per kanal is being paid for some areas in the rural region even though the rate is significantly higher than that.

RDA has already stated the survey of the site and land acquisition is currently being done. It was first mentioned by an RDA official that a committee will assess the land and fix the price. However, after a meeting with the residents of Thalian, the Rawalpindi Commissioner assured the residents that the government will acquire the land at commercial rates so the residents of the areas are not at loss.