City Landran highway being realigned

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020302/cth1.htm
City-Landran highway being realigned
Tribune News Service

SAS Nagar, March 1
After reallotment of 200 acre of land to a religious sect out of the 1,272 acre of land acquired by the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority for a new housing project, realignment of the busy Chandigarh — Landran highway is finally being done.

A 1.5 kilometre stretch of the realigned road between Sohana and Lakhnour villages is being freshly laid, said an official of the Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority. The realigned stretch of the road would run along the boundary of land allotted to the Radha Soami sect. Already the engineering wing has begun the work of raising the level of the proposed road.

The existing stretch was part of the land allotted to the sect after chunks of land owned by it in Sohana and Mauli Baidwan village were clubbed at one place by the PUDA. “There was no option but to reallot the 200 acres of land adjoining Sector 70 as it could affect the planning of the sectors”, said an official of PUDA.

Sources in the PUDA said volunteers of the sect began work of demarcating their land, attracting protest from residents of Sohana village, who said that their standing trees were damaged. The official said the volunteers of the sect , while constructing the boundary wall around the sect’s land, came very near to blocking the highway. Those in charge of the sect have been asked to leave a 100-feet wide road stretch till the alternative road was not constructed. However, an official at the sect’s Sector 76 office said they were not in a hurry for construction of the alternative road.