After High Court rap, Haryana to acquire 1,158 acres of private land to build Gurugram’s missing 24-m roads

The Haryana government plans to compulsorily acquire 1,157.22 acres of private land to build 24-m-wide internal roads across Gurugram, after the Punjab and Haryana High Court pulled up the state government over the long-pending connectivity problem facing the city.

According to a status report submitted by the Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) to the court on September 22, the land accounts for 63.01% of the total area required for 24-m road alignments across sectors 58 to 115 of the Gurugram-Manesar Urban Complex.

The affidavit, filed by DTCP Director General J Ganesan, was submitted in response to directions issued by a division bench hearing petitions related to stalled sector roads in Gurugram.

During a hearing on September 14, the HC observed that the situation had remained largely unchanged since licences for several projects were granted more than a decade ago. It said the lack of roads was forcing homebuyers to seek refunds and discouraging people from living in affected societies.

Noting the seriousness of the issue, the court directed the Advocate General of Haryana to assist it and gave the state a final opportunity to submit an actionable plan with specific timelines.

According to the the September 22 affidavit, 1,836.6 acres fall under identified 24-m road alignments across sectors 58 to 115. Of this, 1,157.22 acres is unacquired private land and will now be acquired compulsorily under the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013.

Another 574.4 acres of the alignment, or 31.28%, falls within licensed colonies. Developers are legally required to construct these roads and hand them over to the government free of cost before obtaining completion certificates under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975.

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The remaining 104.98 acres has been vested with the government through Transferable Development Rights (TDR) certificates.

The shortage of land is highest in sectors 99 to 115 along the Dwarka Expressway, where nearly 70% of the road alignment remains unacquired. This is followed by sectors 68 to 80, where 68.67% remains unacquired, and sectors 88 to 95B, at 65.15%.

The problem has its roots in the way Gurugram’s roads were planned and funded.

Internal 24-m roads were historically not covered under External Development Charges (EDC). While Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) used EDC funds to acquire 60-m and 75-m master sector roads, there was no similar mechanism to acquire private land needed for internal roads, cutting across intervening private agricultural land.

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Developers, who were only bound to build roads within their licensed plots, could not acquire surrounding private land.

In several sectors, builders obtained temporary occupation certificates by arranging access through informal rights-of-way, carving dirt tracks, or leasing land from local villagers. Once the societies were constructed or informal arrangements fell through, landowners reclaimed their parcels by erecting boundary walls and tin sheds, while also digging trenches.

This left the residential societies without proper access roads as well as sewer and water pipelines.

The state’s 2021 TDR policy also did not resolve the issue. The DTCP said in its affidavit that applying for TDR remained voluntary for landowners.

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To cut through the impasse, the government has now decided to use compulsory acquisition, following an announcement made in the Budget earlier this year by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.

After administrative approval on September 15, a Joint Site Inspection Committee was formed on September 17 to conduct surveys and revenue verification. Its report, finalised on September 21, recommended a pilot acquisition of 10.611 acres in sectors 81, 82, 82A, 83, 84, 85, 86 and 104. This includes seven pockets covering 3.65 acres in Sector 104 and stretches in sectors 84 and 85.

The DTCP told the HC that the initial acquisition would be funded from its available EDC reserves, while a separate financial mechanism would be worked out for the remaining land. Notifications for the acquisition process were published in newspapers on September 30.

The department, however, told the court it could not give a fixed date for completing the acquisition of the entire 1,157.22 acres, citing the scale of the exercise, involvement of multiple agencies, revenue verification and the need to deal with hundreds of landowners.