What provoked residents to raise the banner of revolt

K. Manikandan




DECEPTIVELY CALM: A view of the Gowl Bazaar area adjoining the airport. — Photo: A. Muralitharan.



CHENNAI : Modernisation or expansion of the Chennai airport has been talked about for a long time. But it was not before March 2006 that residents of Pozhichalur, Gowl Bazaar and Anakaputhur woke up to rude shock and confusion.

And the confusion has lasted a year, with no categorical announcement from the Government on whether their houses would be acquired for the Chennai International Airport Project or not. The Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority issued a note (U.O. Note No. R1/1363/2006) on February 23, 2006 with a copy of the land plan schedule about the areas covered under the proposed airport restructuring and modernisation. This included re-routing a sizable length of the Adyar river too.

A couple of months earlier, on December 14, 2005, the Transport Department passed a Government Order (GO Ms. No. 91), which said that the Government would hand over 583 hectares of land on the northern side of the existing airport as per the plan received from the Airports Authority of India. Detailed reports appeared in these columns about the number of buildings and extent of land to be taken up for the proposed project. This provoked hundreds of residents to pour out onto the streets, raising objections.

Struggle panel formed

The residents have since come together, organised a series of meetings, got the support of parties, most importantly, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and formed a struggle committee. They have not objected to airport modernisation per se, but have only opposed the land acquisition plan for the project.

Change in plan

The residents have, in their possession, a letter written by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation to the CMDA in May 2005 about the State Government's proposal on the project and land requirement of about 2,000 acres in Manapakkam, Kolapakkam, Gerugambakkam, Tharapakkam, Tandalam, Kovur, Periapanacheri and Gowl Bazaar. "How did the plan change all of a sudden? Who were behind this change in a matter of months, and why has the Government remained adamant on its stand of not initiating a dialogue with the people?'' asks B. Kumar, Struggle Committee secretary. The residents' charge is that the sudden change in plan was only to save a few vested interests They regret that there is no transparency.

They want the Government to stick to the original plan and not to take over land where hundreds of houses have already been built.

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