Mumbai, Sep 5 (IANS): Amid strong protests from farmers, opposition parties and also ruling party members, the MahaYuti government has taken a crucial decision to scrap the land acquisition process for the ambitious 802 km Shaktipeeth Highway connecting Nagpur-Goa, sources have said.

The project entails an investment of a whopping Rs 86,300 crore which will pass through 12 districts and is expected to reduce the travel time to 8 hours from the present 13 hours. It aims to increase connectivity, tourism, especially religious tourism, and the general development of the region.

The expressway will cover Hindu pilgrimage places such as two jyotirlingas -- one in Parli Vaijnath and the second in Aundh Naganath (Nageshwar) in Hingoli district. The Mahur Renu Devi temple, Tuljabhavani in Tuljapur, Vitthal Rakhumai temple of Pandharpur, Mahalaxmi temple of Kolhapur, and Goa’s Patradevi temple are other popular temples in both these states that the expressway will cover.

In the wake of the raging protest, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde intervened and directed to cancellation of the land acquisition process.

State government sources said, "The government will soon cancel the notification released for the land acquisition for the project. The government had appointed 27 land acquisition officers in 12 districts and it hoped to complete the land acquisition by December this year so that the state-run Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) could begin the bidding process. MSRDC is a nodal agency for the project implementation and it started the land acquisition in June. MSRDC has already forwarded its proposal to the state government for cancelling the land acquisition process."

Protests from farmers, especially from Kolhapur, were the trigger for the state government to put the project on the back burner ahead of the Assembly election. Farmers had argued that nearly 27,000 acres of land would be lost due to the highway. This will make thousands of farmers landless.

The farmers were joined by members from ruling and opposition parties arguing that the Shaktipeeth Highway would severely hit agriculture and it should be scrapped. They also demanded the realignment of the existing route.

The Chief Minister has assured the farmers and the members from ruling and opposition that the government will not go ahead in project implementation in haste but pursue it only after considering their views and sentiments.

The government’s move comes a day after NCP(SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Wednesday strongly opposed the development of Shaktipeeth Highway saying that he would soon meet the Chief Minister in this regard.