The Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL) has proposed to privately acquire land for the Millennium City Centre–Cyber City metro corridor by invoking the State government’s newly notified Direct Land Purchase Policy, effectively bypassing the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, to avoid procedural delays and fast-track the long-pending project. The move aims to expedite land procurement in critical stretches where the elevated corridor, depot and allied infrastructure require small parcels of private land.4

The metro corridor traverses a length of 29.05 km in Gurugram. The ₹5,452.72-crore project will be executed in two phases – Phase 1 is of 15.05 km, and Phase 2 comprises 14 km – by the GMRL, a joint venture of the Centre and the State government, according to a report by The Hindu.

As per the January-8 notification, the alignment has been so finalised that major part passes through government land. However, in some places the viaduct passes through private land and at some locations very close to some properties which will be required to be demolished or acquired. In addition, the Metro depot, even though planned in government land, needs a small patch of private land.

Justifying the new policy, the notification said it was formulated in view of the “very lengthy process” of land acquisition through the Act. The policy would be implemented for “very critical cases” of private land requirement affecting the commissioning of the project, said the notification.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the project was held by Union Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal and Chief Minister Nayab Saini on September 5 last year.

Union Minister of State for Planning and Gurugram Lok Sabha MP Rao Inderjit Singh had questioned the seven-year delay in the project, saying that it was first taken up by him in a Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority meeting in 2018.

In the event of any owner refusing to sell the land, or raising objections or the owner not interested with the direct purchase through negotiation, the respective land may be acquired through land acquisition process as per the Act 2013, the notification said.