After much dithering and several rounds of inconclusive talks with land owners, the government on Sunday issued a notification for pooling nearly 1,230 acres for expansion of the airport at Gannavaram.
Attempts to adopt the land pooling model for taking over the requisite extent met with resistance earlier and continue to be a cause for apprehensions among the people, particularly farmers owning large tracts of fertile land around the airport.
As per the notification, lands spread across 11 villages will be pooled for expanding the runway and creating other infrastructure.
The affected villages are Ajjampudi, Allapuram, Buddhavaram, Chinavutapalli, Pedavutapalli, Gannavaram, Jakkula Nekkalam, Purushotthapatnam, Kesarapalli, Venkatanarasimhapuram, and Atkur. Villagers are given time till March 6 to raise objections, and those willing to part with their lands have to apply for the same within 15 days to the competent authorities, i.e. District Collector, CRDA Commissioner, and Nuzvid RDO.
The government has designated them as the competent authorities through G.O M.S. No. 169 dated June 29, 2015.
Details of the land pooling plan have been displayed at the Nuzvid RDO office and the respective village secretariats for public scrutiny.
It may be noted that people of Ajjampudi, Buddhavaram, and Kesarapalli have demanded market rate for the land proposed to be pooled for the long-pending airport expansion.
Negotiations by the District Collector and other officials have not yielded a clear mandate in favour of land pooling.
The airport has been proposed to be developed as an international facility as it is located close to the capital city of Andhra Pradesh and the government has given a formal nod for pooling 687 acres.
The ball is now in the court of the district administration to offer a fair deal to the villagers lest trouble should erupt again.
Details have been displayed at the Nuzvid RDO office and the respective village secretariats
