The limping acquisition of land for the expansion of Coimbatore International Airport is again seeing signs of improvement with the Government allotting a sum of ₹189 crore.
This is the second instalment of money allotted by the Government after ₹75 crore was allotted for land owners in block seven coming under the Uppilipalayam village in November last year.
Now, the Government has allotted ₹189 for blocks one and 11, according to officials. The 627 acres of land proposed to be acquired is spread across 24 blocks.
While there has been a huge cry from the land owners against the delay in the acquisition, even as the price was fixed at ₹1,500 per sqft for residential plots and ₹ 900 per sqft for agricultural plots. and agricultural land, officials from various departments involved in the acquisition say that the processing of these files are in various stages of final approval.
One of the land owners told The Hindu that officials involved in the acquisition process barely share developments to land owners despite frequent visits and requisitions.
Block one includes lands leased by owners to the Director General of Civil Aviation eight decades ago.
It was in 1939, 60.95 acres of land close to the runway of the airport were taken for lease by the Central Government under the Defence of India Act for defence purposes in view of the Second World War.
In 1942, the Government entered into an agreement with the land owners which said that the land will be handed over six months after the end of the war. However, the lands were not handed over to the owners as per the agreement. The lands, 22.54 acre in Singanallur village and 38.41 acre in Kalapatty village, came under the control of the Director General of Civil Aviation in 1947.
“The land owners from block one had moved the Madras High Court after the Airport Authority of India stopped disbursal of lease amount a few years back as the lands came under the acquisition process. The court recently ordered to pay the compensations to the land owners immediately, following which money for block one was allotted by the Government,” said a senior official from the Revenue Department seeking anonymity.
Sources in the district administration added that files related to the acquisition of lands coming under some other blocks were in various stages of processing with the Commissioner of Land Administration,
Law Department and Revenue Department. The departments involved in the acquisition has also sent some additional files to Chennai.
District Collector K. Rajamani said that he and officials from AAI conducted a joint inspection of lands on Tuesday to take a decision over some of the patches of land that shares borders with the 627 acres, but not included in the list for acquisition.
The joint inspection also found that two roads coming under the Coimbatore Corporation and the Irugur town panchayat and two drainages are passing through the 627 acres. Also, railway track is situated close to the total land identified. A report of the joint inspection will be sent to Chennai, he said.
