Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s pet Mumbai-Nagpur Supercommunication Expressway project has come under the scanner after the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) received a written complaint against senior IAS and State civil service officers for purchasing hundreds of acres of land adjacent to the proposed road and townships in their relatives’ names.

The complaint (a copy is available with The Hindu) was submitted to the CMO on Friday with land ownership documents.

The 710-km eight-lane expressway, estimated to cost around Rs. 46,000 crore, aims to connect districts like Nagpur, Wardha, Amravati, Washim, Buldhana, Aurangabad, Jalna, Ahmednagar, Nashik and Thane. The corridor is also expected to lead to the development of 24 new townships.

The complaint by Shetkari Sangharsh Samiti (SSS), a farmers’ body working in Thane’s Shahapur, Bhiwandi and Kalyan tehsils, alleges the land was purchased by a cartel of government officers. This group of officers wasaware of the proposed road alignment and, more importantly, the possible locations of townships in Shahapur tehsil, the complaint said.

Baban Harane, co-ordinator, SSS, said, “The land purchased by them will not come under the project, but the project will raise the value of [adjacent] land manifold. We have submitted documents naming Piyush Bongirwar, son of former Chief Secretary Arun Bongirwar, Thane Deputy District Collector Jairam Pawar’s brother Vijay; Additional Commissioner Kailas Jadhav’s brother Subhash and Thane Municipal Corporation s Additional Commissioner Sunil Chavan to the CMO.”

Mr. Harane said farmers in the area have been asking the government to not push for the new road, and instead widen the existing Mumbai-Nashik highway. This, they claim, will significantly curtail land acquisition and be equally effective. The suggestion was made to Mr. Fadnavis at a meeting held two months ago. He alleged that the officers’ lobby is pushing for the new road, as huge land parcels have been purchased by the relatives of many officers.

Mr. Fadnavis told The Hindu that he is yet to see the complaint. “There is no land acquisition [planned] in this project as it is [to be executed via] land pooling. Whoever gives land will get a developed plot. So, it will not be of use to anyone to purchase land beforehand,” he said. Mr. Fadnavis added that if a government officer is found to be purchasing land, he or she will be asked to show the source of the money used to buy it.