Missing the plot: One house holds up Delhi-Dehradun expressway

GHAZIABAD: The lay of the land was different in the Nineties when Veersen Saroha and his family lived in a modest house on a 1,600 square metre plot in Mandola, a rural neighbourhood of interspersed dwellings and farms.
In 1998, UP Housing Board issued a notification to acquire 2,614 acres of land from six villages in the area, near the Delhi-Ghaziabad border, for its Mandola Housing Scheme. By and by, families were convinced to part with their land. But Veersen refused and moved Allahabad High Court, which stayed the acquisition of his plot.

Protests and procedural delays ensured the housing scheme never materialised, so when National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) went looking for land for its Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, the housing board obliged.
One family that refused to relent was Veersen's. Today, the house stands exactly as it stood in the Nineties even as everything around it has disappeared, replaced by an expressway stretching all the way to Akshardham at one end and the hills of Uttarakhand on the other.
Between Akshardham and Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE), NHAI is building the expressway in two sections - 14.7km from Akshardham to the UP border in Loni and 16km from Loni to Khekra at EPE. Both these sections are complete except for the 1,600 square metres of Veersen's house that stand in its way. The entire 212km expressway is also in the final stages of construction, with a possible opening by June.
Veersen's now uninhabited two-storey house will play a part in when the road eventually opens. "Work has been held up because of litigation as the owner of the house and his family have filed a case in Supreme Court," an NHAI official told TOI.
When the Mandola housing project was announced, govt offered an acquisition rate of Rs 1,100 per sqm. There were around 1,000 farmers and house owners who were affected. Over the years, 94% of them took the payout. Veersen was among the handful who refused.
"Those who refused wanted the compensation rates raised," said Neeraj Tyagi, who has been leading protests in Mandola for a higher payout. Veersen had moved Allahabad high court in 2007. "But as court proceedings went on for several years, UP Housing Board in 2010 was forced to delineate his land," added Tyagi.
Before the case reached a resolution, Veersen died. Between 2017 and 2020, NHAI's plans to build the expressway materialised. "NHAI required land near Mandola to construct a ramp. The housing board in 2020 gave the land parcel to NHAI of which the house is also a part," said a housing board source.
In 2024, Saroha's grandson Lakshyaveer moved Supreme Court, arguing the land was not the housing board's to give. A person closely associated with the case who requested not to be named said Supreme Court had directed the plea to the Lucknow bench of the high court. "The Lucknow bench has scheduled a hearing on April 16. There are also Supreme Court directions to expedite the case as the project is in the larger interest of people and the opening of the expressway depends on it."
The Akshardham-EPE section will bring down the Delhi-Baghpat drive to less than 30 minutes. "About 20km is an elevated section. The road will provide seamless connectivity from Akshardham to Baghpat via Loni," said the NHAI official.
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