Finding farmers’ demand for enhanced compensation for land acquisition financially unviable, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) has put on hold the ambitious 32-kilometre greenfield project in Mohali.
The ₹700-crore road was planned from IT Chowk (PR-7) near the Chandigarh International Airport to the Kurali-Chandigarh road to decongest Chandigarh and Zirakpur by providing an alternative route to traffic coming from Delhi and going to Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.
The authority’s decision comes after it had already accorded approval for increasing the compensation for land acquisition in September last year, following protests by land owners, mostly farmers.
