"Globes" has learned that the cost of compulsory purchases of land for the purposes of constructing the Metro underground railway system in the Gush Dan area in and around Tel Aviv will be not less than NIS 10 billion, making the compulsory purchase operation the largest ever undertaken in Israel. In order to build the three Metro lines planned for Gush Dan, thousands of properties will need to be acquired for the stations, piers for the boring machines, ventilation shafts, and depot areas, and the amounts that the compulsory purchase orders will involve are now revealed.
Last February, NTA - Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd. (NTA), the company carrying out the Metro project, began with the first set of compulsory purchase orders, sending out some 11,000 notices to 900 properties. In that round, 2,300 dunams of land were expropriated, out of 11,000 dunams required for the project. The cities in which the compulsory purchases orders are being issued are Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Holon, Bat Yam, Or Yehuda, Kiryat Ono, Kiryat Ono, and Rishon LeZion, where the first two planned Metro lines that have been approved for construction, M3 and the central portion of M1, will pass.
Most of the residential properties that will need to be expropriated are along the M2 line, which was approved only in May, and so most of the compulsory purchases still lie ahead. Altogether, about 200,000 compulsory purchase notices will be issued, and the operation will take place relatively swiftly. Under the Metro Law passed by the Knesset, the state can compulsorily purchase land not just for public needs, but also for commercial uses, which represent part of the model for financing the project.
The Metro’s three lines pass under 24 local authorities, in which 109 stations will be constructed. The official opening date is between 2034 and 2037, but unofficial estimates put it nearer 2040. The estimated cost is NIS 150 billion, half of which is to be financed by the state and half by a Metro tax on property owners and local authorities that will benefit from higher property values along the Metro routes and commercial use of the stations and terminals, and from the congestion charge due to come into force in Gush Dan in 2026.
NTA and government ministries preferred not to publicize the cost of the compulsory purchases, which will come out of the project’s budget, but sources familiar with the matter believe that it will be more than NIS 10 billion.
At any rate, the stage of inspection of the 900 properties slated for compulsory purchase in the first round has begun for the purposes of assessing the compensation due. The compensation is in two parts: the fall in value of the property as a result of the compulsory purchase and rezoning (for example from residential to a Metro station), and the value of the land itself and the buildings on it. NTA has decided that those who come to agreement with it and refrain from filing a lawsuit because of the expropriation, will be entitled to 25% extra compensation, up to a limit of NIS 1 million. The aim is to expedite the process and avoid prolonged legal proceedings as much as possible.
Meanwhile, work on construction of the Metro continues. So far, statutory approval has been given for four of the five plans for constructing the three lines, and NTA and the planning authorities are working on detailed planning of the lines. Last year, the companies that will manage the work on the lines, at a cost of NIS 8 billion, were selected. The winning companies are both Israeli and international, and they are due to recruit hundreds of workers for planning and construction of the Metro, although at present many of these workers are finding it difficult to reach Israel because of the war.
The project has hardly started, and it is already behind schedule. Work to make land available in some of the sections was supposed to have been carried out by now, but is still not complete. The compulsory purchases have also begun late, after Minister of Transport Miri Regev refused to sign compulsory purchase orders until the government approved railway lines to Kiryat Shemona and Eilat. In the end, it was decided that these lines would be budgeted for planning at a cost of NIS 2.4 billion out of the budget of Regev’s ministry (the cost of construction will be tens of billions of shekels), and she then consented to sign the orders.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on October 1, 2024.
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