In a bid to expedite the ambitious Parnai Hydel Power Project, Poonch district administration has ordered a proper demarcation with ownership details of all the plots of the land required for the project to ensure an early payment of compensation to the land owners.
Poonch District Collector Mohammad Aijaz Asad directed Mendhar Sub-Divisional Magistrate Tanvir Khan to submit a detailed report within a week after proper demarcation of the land in question to identify the real owners, the officials said today.
Asad issued the directive at a joint meeting of land owners and representatives of Power Development Corporation (PDC), convened to sort out the issues of actual possession and compensation to the land owners of the Project at Surankote, the officials said today.
The district collector ordered demarcation of the requisite project land after the land owners, during the meeting, said there was a lot of confusion with respect to the possession and ownership of the land and it should be properly demarcated before final award is made.
The Rs 604 crore Hydro Electric Project (HEP) has been conceived as a multi-purpose one, keeping in mind its potential to cater to both power and irrigation-related needs of the border district.
The work on the project, a run-of-the-river (RoR) scheme with an installed capacity of 37.5 MW, began in 2014. It is expected to irrigate vast tracts of agricultural land once it's completed.
The project was scheduled to be completed in 2017 but got delayed and subsequently an extension of two years till 2019 end was given, the officials said, adding 60 per cent of the work has been completed so far.
Asad cautioned the concerned departments to complete the homework on ground before finalizing land compensation so that the project is not delayed and the pending issues could be resolved at the earliest, they said.
During the meeting, the officials said the land owners also raised the concern regarding amount of compensation to be paid to them for land acquisition.
On the point raised by land owners that the compensation awarded is very less than the market price and be enhanced keeping in view the escalated cost of the land, they said Asad assured them that they would be provided adequate compensation as per the law.
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