The Times of India               07.12.2013

Illegal houses in way of Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad project demolished

NOIDA: To speed up work on the much-awaited Faridabad-Noida-Ghaziabad(FNG) Expressway, Noida Authority on Friday conducted a demolition drive to remove massive encroachment. The action was taken after the violators did not pay any heed to the Authority's notices.

FNG has become the Authority's most-awaited project to ease congestion. "No encroachment on government land will be allowed to hamper the work of the expressway. The Authority aims to complete it as soon as possible," said Rajesh Prakash, DCEO, Noida Authority.

The demolition drive on Friday lasted six hours. The Authority team, comprising officials from the anti-encroachment cell and land wing, removed houses built on government land meant for the expressway. Land mafia had illegally sold the plots long back. Similar kinds of anti-encroachment drives will continue in future, said officials.

The Authority CEO Rama Raman had earlier directed engineers to speed up work on all projects. "FNG is a very important project not just for residents living around it, but also the realty sector. It is due to such factors that we are clearing hurdles to make way for early delivery of the project," said a senior Authority official.

Also, officials have been on their toes to resolve all legal issues between farmers and the Authority so that work does not come to a standstill. The Rs 1,000 crore, 43km-long FNG Expressway has faced several hurdles in the past as farmers had refused to give up their land for the project. Besides, local land mafia sold land for the project to people, who built houses on it.

Plan for the expressway was started in 1989, while work commenced in 1993. The Authority has already completed work on 16 kilometres of the 21km stretch which falls in Noida's jurisdiction. The remaining part of FNG lies in Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Since the Authority's progress on this road was very slow, colonizers saw an opportunity and sold the expressway land illegally, claimed officials.