Residents concerned over land acquisition for airport expansion

K. Manikandan

They say project will displace over 25,000 people

Tambaram : A section of residents of Anakaputhur, Pozhichalur and Pammal, who met on Wednesday evening, expressed concern over a Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority note for the acquisition of 583 hectares in their locality and Gowl Bazaar.

This land will be handed over to the Airports Authority of India for restructuring and modernisation of the Chennai Airport.

The note (U.O. Note No. R1/1363/2006), issued on February 23, has brought to a halt all development activities in these areas.

A copy of the Land Plan Schedule furnished details of the villages covered under the proposed airport modernisation, shows a long stretch of the Adyar river for acquisition.

A Government Order (December 14 2005, G.O. Ms. No. 91) which stated that the Government, after careful consideration of the AAI proposal , had decided to accept the request and acquire 583 hectares on the northern side of the airport as per the plan received from the AAI.

It may be recalled that the State Government accepted the Civil Aviation Ministry's proposal and announced that the land would be made available free of cost.

The Department had also, in a separate letter, directed among others, the Kancheepuram Collector and the CMDA to take "necessary immediate action to freeze all building activities in the approach area and issue suitable notification in this regard." The plan schedule identifies a vast areain Kunrathur for rehabilitating those likely to be displaced by the acquisition.

According to the proposal, 3,210 buildings — including 1,899 pucca houses, 641 tiled houses, 670 huts, 11 temples, two churches, overhead water tanks, nearly a dozen government and school buildings — come under the acquisition area in Pozhichalur panchayat. The number is 853 in Anakaputhur, 190 in Gowl Bazaar and 46 in Pammal.

Residents said as the proposed acquisition would displace no less than 25,000 people by modest estimates, the State and Centre should come clean with a transparent approach on what exactly they planned to do.

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