The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has taken a tough stand on Monday in the matter of building the Lucknow-Rae Bareli-Prayagraj four-lane highway.
The Court has summoned the district magistrates of Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh, and Prayagraj, the concerned Divisional Forest Officer and the regional officer of NHAI of Eastern Uttar Pradesh on August 31 in the matter. The Division Bench of Justice Rituraj Awasthi and Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh passed this order while hearing a suo motu in the matter of Lucknow ‐ Rae Bareli- Allahabad Road.
Vipnesh Sharma, Regional Officer, UP, East, NHAI, informed the Court that the NHAI has prepared a detailed project report for construction of a four-lane road with dividers from Rae Bareli to Prayagraj.
However, for this purpose, some land would be required to be acquired in Districts Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj. Notification under Section 3 of the National Highways Act, 1956 has been issued for acquisition of the land.
Also Read: Awadh Bar Association elections: Allahabad High Court directs returning officer to file report
Now, the District Magistrates of these three districts have to make the awards of the land acquired and thereafter, hand it over to the NHAI, so that the work may start.
The Court ordered that on August 31, the District Magistrates of Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Prayagraj shall appear before the Court along with Regional Officer, U.P. East, NHAI and the Concessioner as well as the Divisional Forest Officer of the area concerned to assist the Court, so that the project may not be delayed. It should be completed and made operational by March 31, 2022.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the Petition on August 31.