Land acquisition for Calcutta-Varanasi Expressway, Navanna directs 5 districts to start work

Abhijit Ray, Kolkata:The state government has ordered the initiation of the land acquisition process for the construction of the proposed Kolkata-Varanasi highway under the Bharat Mala project. Chief Secretary Harikrishna Dwivedi sat in a high-level meeting at Nabanna on Thursday regarding the preparations for road construction. There he directed the District Magistrates (DM) of 5 districts to start land acquisition work in the respective areas.About 600 km long expressway will be built between Varanasi and Kolkata. It will pass over 5 districts of the state. Through this proposed highway, passengers can cover the distance between the two cities in just 6 hours. According to administrative sources, the chief secretary has ordered to start the necessary land acquisition and soil testing.Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia – a total of 242 km of roads will be built over these five districts under the ‘Bharat Mala’ project. Then 187 km road in Jharkhand, 159 km road in Bihar and 22 km road in Uttar Pradesh. Total 610 km road. This Greenfield Road is supposed to be completed by 2027-28. A total of 30 thousand crore rupees project ‘Bharat Mala’.All other states have already completed land acquisition. In the case of Bengal, it remained. The chief secretary ordered to start that work on Thursday. The acquisition work should be started by judging multiple factors including speedy land testing, marking.It is known that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is coming to Kolkata to attend the Ganga Parishad meeting on December 30. That is why Navanna wants to quickly complete the land acquisition work for the Calcutta-Varanasi Expressway. On Thursday, the chief secretary asked the opinion of the district magistrates about this work.