CM & Aviation Minster on Land Scam at Mumbai Airport

Slum rehabilitation key but no timeline yet: Ajit

Express news service: Tue Jun 19 2012, 02:42 hr

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Monday admitted that the issue of rehabilitating slums encroaching the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) land would be crucial for the airport’s performance. “Slum rehabilitation is very much necessary for this airport to function. We are looking into the issue but no timeline has been fixed for it so far,” said Singh, who was in the city to assess the development of the CSIA. “We have to be judicious in using the land area in the landlocked CSIA,” Singh said.

Sources said the minister discussed the issue with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. The private operators of CSIA, one of the busiest airports in the country, face the challenge of clearing 276 acres of encroached land. The rehabilitation project is many years behind schedule after several false starts, contributing to CSIA becoming one of the most congested airports in the region. With 85,000 shanties to be relocated eventually, the project will be Mumbai’s biggest slum resettlement project, considerably larger than the rehabilitation of 34,000 families under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai Urban Infrastructure Project in 2004-05. With just 1,976 acres of land at its disposal - Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore airports all have more than double that - the Mumbai airport is severely constrained for space. Besides, the slums compromise the security of the airport.

Over 18,000 rehabilitation apartments for these slum dwellers - measuring 269 sq ft each — are almost complete in Kurla (West), located barely 3 km from the airport slums. Only a small fraction has been allotted to project-affected slum dwellers, however, with surveys to enumerate slum residents eligible for free resettlement and the policy for rehabilitation still stuck.

Singh said, “We are considering using the Juhu Aerodrome to ease the traffic flow until work on the new terminal is complete.”

Chavan also said the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has mapped out the land including aeronautical and non-aeronautical uses and said the rehabilitation process is under way.

Chavan also said land acquisition issues plague two airports in the state — the Navi Mumbai International Airport and the Nagpur International Airport. “We have got some land for the Navi Mumbai International Airport and the rest is being acquired. New land has also been bought for the Chakan Airport near Pune,” said Chavan.

Chief Secretary J K Banthia will run the new task force jointly set up by the Civil Aviation Ministry and the state government to look into the issues of developing airports in the state, Singh said .

Meanwhile, Pramod Hindurao, chairman of CIDCO, which is the nodal agency for the proposed Navi Mumbai International Airport, also met Singh, seeking help in expediting work on the proposed airport. Senior CIDCO officials also briefed the minister on problems encountered in obtaining No-Objection Certificate from AAI. Singh also reportedly promised to look into the project approval, which is stuck with bureaucrats unsure if the approving authority should be the state government.