Land acquisition soon for Indore's auto testing track

The process of land acquisition has begun in Dhar district near Indore for India's first digital auto proving ground or auto testing track.

The process faced some hurdles when locals protested against the acquisition. The issue had also been raised in the MP Legislative Assembly during the last session. Construction work has been delayed due to delay in land acquisition.

"A total of 4,000 acres of land is required for the testing track, of which 1,100 acres is government-owned land and 2,700 acres is private owned land. The order for land acquisition has been passed and the shifting of electric lines, etc. will probably take place next month," said OP Rawat, principal secretary, state department of industries.

He also said survey work for the land area had been completed and 120 families are to be displaced.

The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP), the largest and one of the most significant initiatives in automotive sector so far, represents a unique joining of hands between the Government of India, a number of state governments and Indian Automotive Industry to create a state of the art Testing, Validation and R&D infrastructure in the country.

Protest simmered few days back against the land acquisition but nothing and a local MLA Antar Singh Darbar had raised the issue in state assembly. "Farmers were demanding more compensation against land but farmer is not an issue now," said Rawat.