12122024-LT-01.qxd 12/12/2024 12:58 AM Page 1 c m y b Ludhiana tribune CULTURAL PROGRAMME MARKS BEGINNING OF SCHOOL GAMES GNDU BAGS RUNNERS-UP TROPHY AT YOUTH MELA NANDITA SUPPORTS SHEENA’S DRIVE ON HUMAN RIGHTS DAY Over 3,000 participants gathered to compete in four sports — handball, netball, judo and karate. P2 GNDU has bagged the second runners-up trophy at the Punjab State Inter-University Youth Fair 2024. P3 Acclaimed actress Nandita Das said the right ‘Don’t Discriminate’ is the only way to create a peaceful world. P4 » » » FORECAST MAINLY CLEAR SKY MAX 22°C | MIN 7°C YESTERDAY MAX 22°C | MIN 8°C SUNSET THURSDAY 5.24 PM SUNRISE FRIDAY 7:10 AM THURSDAY | 12 DECEMBER 2024 | LUDHIANA Shelved Ludhiana-Ropar highway revived, entire land made available NHAI asks concessionaire to resume work on ~2,857-cr project’s Package-1 Nitin Jain PROJECT REPORT Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 11 In a major development, the Ludhiana-Ropar highway has been finally revived with the possession of entire land acquired for the project, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has said. The 37.7-km four to six-lane Greenfield highway was the third major NHAI project besides the Centre’s flagship Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway to be revived in the state after they were shelved/terminated for want of requisite land. It was made possible after Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora engaged the protesting farmers with all stakeholders and official machinery to manage the possession of the entire land to build the Rs 2,900-crore big ticket project. The Ludhiana-Bathinda highway and Southern Ludhiana Bypass were the other two NHAI projects, besides several packages of the Katra expressway that have already got parcels of remaining acquired land to resume the construction work. The development assumes significance as these were the three Greenfield national highway projects in the state, having length of 104 km with a total capital cost amounting to Rs 3,264 crore, that had been terminated/ withdrawn due to the non-availability of land as per conditions precedent on the part of the NHAI within stipulated timelines. It was in June that the concessionaire of the LudhianaRopar highway had terminated the work and demobilised its resources from the site after waiting for over eight months of the peasants stalling the ongoing construction work against what they had been alleging Length 116 km Cost ~2,857.14 crore Lanes 4-6 ROW 60 meter Status: Entire acquired land possessed, concessionaire asked to resume work Appointed date: Dec 2022 Deadline: December 2024 Owner: NHAI Project Model: HAM Route: To start from DelhiAmritsar-Katra expressway (NE5) near Manewal village in Ludhiana and terminate on NH205 at Ropar near Bheora village. Besides, a spur from Pipalmajra to Kharar will connect Ludhiana bypass Pillars were fixed to take possession of land acquired for the Ludhiana-Ropar highway. “unfair compensation” for their lands under acquisition for the mega project. Confirming the development, MP Arora told The Tribune on Wednesday that the entire land acquired for the project had been possessed and handed over to the contractor for resuming the work. Acting swiftly, NHAI Project Director Priyanka Meena shot off a letter to the concessionaire, asking it to commence the work forthwith. “This is to bring to your attention that after continuous efforts and possession drives in coordination with the district administration, the possession of entire 37.7km project length has been acquired by pillar fixing,” Meena wrote while asking the construction firm to commence the work on the project and ensure that all necessary resources, including manpower and machinery, are mobilised at the site accordingly. Before being shelved, over 15 per cent construction of 37.7-km stretch under Package 1 of the 116-km-long Greenfield project, including a 19.5-km spur from Pipal Majra to Kharar with the Ludhiana bypass, to be constructed at the cost of Rs 2,857.14 crore had already been achieved within the limits of Ludhiana district before the farmers had stalled the work on October 9 last. Of the total 116-km project, the land rates to acquire the 50km stretch had been put under arbitration to review and revise the acquisition award. This major infrastructure development project was appointed in December 2022 with completion deadline of December 2024. Arora said the work on Package 1 of the four to sixlane National Highway-205K from junction with NE-5 village near to Manewal in Ludhiana to junction with the NH-205 near Bheora village in Ropar, including spur to Kharar with Ludhiana Bypass, will be taken up on priority for its completion in the minimum possible time. He said the agitating farmers were pacified by paying them fair compensation for their lands to avoid any further delay in the construction of the highway. With Rs 951-crore civil cost and Rs 410-crore land acquisition cost, the total capital cost for Package 1, for which the work was awarded in September 2021 and began in December 2022 was Rs 1,368.91 crore for which 260 hectares of land was required. The Package 2, comprising 47.24-km stretch, involved a civil cost of Rs 1,035 crore and land acquisition amount of Rs 461.71 crore, taking the total capital cost to Rs 1,488.23 crore. However, the possession of land had been delayed under the package as well, for which the work had been awarded in December 2021. Took up with NHAI top brass: MP “I also took up the matter with Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and the NHAI Chairman, Santosh Kumar Yadav, to get the project restored and also impressed upon the state government to remove hurdles coming in the way of the highway construction,”said Sanjeev Arora, RS MP . A fire breaks out at a power grid of the PSCPL on Tajpur Road in Ludhiana. ASHWANI DHIMAN Massive fire engulfs power grid 4-6 access-controlled highway okayed Tribune News Service The NHAI had approved 4-6 access-controlled highway with a route alignment connecting Manewal village in Ludhiana on the upcoming Delhi-Amritsar-Katra expressway with Bheora village near Ropar for the construction of the Greenfield expressway, which includes a 19.5-km spur from Pipalmajra to Kharar with the Ludhiana bypass and was to be developed under the Bharatmala Pariyojana Phase-1. The expressway was to be built in three parts under the hybrid annuity model (HAM) mode, and will connect Ludhiana, Ropar and Mohali districts. Under the HAM mode, 40 per cent of the the project cost was provided by the government as construction support during the construction period and the balance 60 per cent was paid as annuity payments over the operations period along with interest thereon to the concessionaire. While three railway overbridges to be built under the project had also been approved by the Northern Railway, the plan and profile of the project had been submitted and the alignment had been approved. Ludhiana, December 11 A major fire broke out at a 66 kV power grid on Tajpur Road here on Wednesday. The inferno was so intense that flames and black smoke were visible from a long distance, causing panic in the area. As soon as the fire started, power supply was disrupted in several areas along Tajpur Road. Fire brigade officials were informed and they rushed to the scene to control the blaze. Sub-fire officer Aatish Rai said the fire department received the call in the evening and promptly responded with six fire tenders. The flames were visible from the road and firefighters quickly began dousing them. Commuters captured videos of the incident on their phones and shared them on social media. Controlling the situation was a daunting task for firefighters due to the massive size of the power grid and the presence of oil in transformers, which accelerated the spread of the fire. Meanwhile, power supply in affected areas is expected to remain disrupted for an extended period. As per fire officials, two major transformers got burnt as the fire broke out at the power grid on Tajpur Road this evening. The Chief Engineer, PSPCL, here, Jagdev Singh Hans, said a bush of the transformers burst due to which it caught fire. Two major transformers got burnt and it would take another 5-6 hours to douse the flames. The losses are expected at around Rs 7 crore, he said, adding that once the fire was controlled, the load would be distributed on other grids. For the time being, the entire area was affected. Pharmacist duped of ~4.68L AAP releases list of 95 candidates Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 11 A case of cheating has been registered against a travel agent, Manpreet Kaur, of Urban Estate, who allegedly duped a pharmacist, Deepak, of Rs 4,68,000. The incident occurred in January 2023 when Deepak approached the suspect to facilitate his travel to England for a job of a caretaker. He said the agent assured him that she would arrange for his travel documents and visa within a few months. Howev- er, despite paying her the required amount, he neither received his travel documents nor was his money refunded. A complaint was filed with the CP on July 1, 2023. After a thorough investigation spanning over a year, the police on Tuesday registered a case against the woman. The police are currently searching for her and have assured that she would be arrested soon. The suspect is a resident of Urban Estate, Dugri. The victim has appealed to the authorities to take swift action in the matter. Civic body poll: 34 file nominations on Day 3 BJP announces list of 92 candidates Tribune News Service Shivani Bhakoo Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 11 A total of 34 candidates filed papers on the third day of filing nominations for the civic body elections. As many as 25 nominations were filed for the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, whereas nine candidates, three for the Sahnewal MC and six for the Malaud nagar panchayat, filed their papers in the district on Wednesday, for the poll, scheduled to be held on December 21. Disclosing this here today, District Election Officer (DEO) Jitendra Jorwal said 25 nominations were received for the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana. Now, a total of 26 nominations have been received till Wednesday. Whereas nine nominations, three for the Sahnewal MC and six for the Malaud nagar panchayat elections, received on Wednesday. He said December 12 would be the last date for filing the nominations. Jorwal said the nominations would be scrutinised on December 13 while the date for withdrawal of the same would be December 14. He also stated that electronic voting machines (EVMs) would be used for voting on Aspirants file their papers for MC poll in Ludhiana on Wednesday. INDERJEET VERMA & ASHWANI DHIMAN December 21 and votes would be counted on the same day at the polling station itself, after completion of the polling. Prominent Congress candidates from the West constituency also filed their nominations. These include Mamta Ashu, Sunil Kapoor and Poonam Malhotra. While talking to mediapersons, they said the ruling party had not done anything important during the past two years and the public was suffering. They said works done during the Congress regime were also spoiled by it so their first preference would be to complete those works and afterwards, they will take up new projects. Thursday is the last day of filing nominations and it is being expected that there will be a huge rush as most of the remaining candidates will come to file their papers. c m y b Ludhiana, December 11 The BJP has announced the list of 92 candidates late last evening. Though the list was still awaited, many of the “sure-shot” candidates had already started convening meetings, making strategies for the upcoming elections last evening. Insiders maintained that the list was to be released by 8 pm but there were last-minute discussions among senior leaders over few names, which took almost three hours more to decide about the final list of candidates. Meanwhile, candidates who were sure that their names would be included in the list, had already started holding meetings with supporters to chalk out further plans. One of the supporters of a candidate said it was time for us to pull up our socks and reach to the masses. “We will give a tough fight indeed”, said the supporter of a woman candidate from the BJP from a ward, which otherwise was dominated by the Congress. Interestingly, women were seen talking about the upcoming MC elections and works done by councillors. Besides, on social media plat- CONG NAMES 13 MORE CANDIDATES The Congress on Wednesday released the list of 13 more candidates. On Tuesday, the first list of 63 candidates was released by the party. forms, residents posted video clips and pictures of candidates, seeking support from residents for candidates. The list of BJP candidates include Kamaljit Kaur (Ward 1), Anil Kumar Mittal (2), Pallavi Vinayak (3), Raj Kishor Lucky (4), Ravi Kumar ( 5), Devinder Singh (6), Angrez Kaur (7), Rakesh Sidhu (8), Deeksha Batra (9), Mukesh Gautam (10), Gulshan Kaur (11), Gurbax Singh Billa (12), Nisha Rani (13), Naval Kishor Jain (14), Sangeeta Devi (15), Rintu Sharma (16), Ruby Goriyan (17), Anil Bhardwaj (18), Dolly Gossain (19), Harbans Singh Saluja (20), Inshpreet Kaur (21), Hanish Gupta (22), Sobha Sharma (23), Manmeet Chawla (24), Champa Devi (25), Suresh Aggarwal (26), Jasvir Kaur (27), Ankur Verma (28), Lakhvir Kaur (29), Vicky Sahota (30), Bhawna Sharma (31), Raman Kumar Heera (32), Lakhwinder Kaur (33), Rajesh Mishra (34), Pratima Bhardwaj (35), Balwinder Singh Chauhan (36), Sunita Sharma (37), Gurnam (38), Sunita Rani Saini (39), Naveen Kumar (40), Khushboo (41), Gurmeet Singh (42), Rupal Nagpal (43), Amratpal Singh Kalsi (44), Harpreet Kaur (45), Kuldeep Singh (46), Suresh Kumari (47), Kiranpal Singh (48), Anita Sharma (49), Rakesh Chander Prashar (50), Neeru Sharma (51), Isher Singh Lalka (52), Bhawna Jindal (53), Harvinder Singh (54), Manveen Kaur Grewal (55), Yogesh Sharma (56), Ritu Jain (57), Pawan Kumar Garg (58), Monika Gupta (59), Jatinder Kumar (60), Shivani Kashyap (61), Sunil Moudgil (62), Hema Chopra (63), Anil Jain (64), Rajni Arora (65), Rohit Sikka (66), Inderjit Kaur Banga (67), Mala Dhanda (69), Suman (70), Seema Wadhwa (71), Vinod Kumar (72), Ruchi (73), Arun Kumar (74), Gurmeet Kaur Neetu (75), Mukesh Khatri (76), Poonam Ratra (77), Joh Masih (78), Bhavneet Kaur (79), Manju Aggarwal (81), Devinder Jaggi (82), Namita Malhotra (83), Neeraj Verma (84), Deepika (85), Sachin Moudgil (86), Saroj (87), Sunita Rani (88), Vandan Hand (89), Mantosh Saini (91), Kapish Bansal (92), Poonam Dhawan (93), Amit Sharma (94) and Kamaljit Kaur (Ward 95). Nikhil Bhardwaj Tribune News Service Ludhiana, December 11 The much awaited list of 95 candidates for the upcoming MC elections was released by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today. The ticket aspirants were waiting anxiously for the announcement as only one day is left for filing nomination papers on Thursday. The aspirants, however, had already taken NOC from the civic body. AAP MLAs became successful in getting ticket for their wives, sons, brother, besides turncoats, who had joined the ruling party recently. AAP MLA from the North constituency Madan Lal Bagga got ticket for his son Aman Khurana from Ward 94 in the segment and the latter had already started campaigning in the ward days before the announcement. AAP MLA from the Atam Nagar constituency Kulwant Sidhu got ticket for his son Yuvraj Singh Sidhu, who had contested the MC elections in 2018 as well but he was defeated by Shiromani Akali Dal candidate late Harbhajan Singh Dang. AAP MLA from the West constituency Gurpreet Gogi got ticket for his wife Dr Sukhchain Bassi while AAP MLA from the Central constituency Ashok Prashar Pappi got two ticket, one for his brother Rakesh Prashar, a former councillor, and one for his wife Meenu Prashar. Besides, turncoats Amrit Varsha Rampal, Tanvir Dhaliwal, Divya Danav, Pinky Bansal, Surinder Kaur Manna, Ajay Nayyar, Anil Parti, Veeran Bedi, etc, also got the ticket. Party insiders claimed that the ticket were distributed among leaders of MLAs’ choice and core workers were ignored. It would be seen whether the ruling party would be able to compete with other par-