Land acquisition process for parallel runway delayed

AMBIGUITY WORRIES RESIDENTS

Land acquisition process for parallel runway delayed
V Ayyappan TNN

Chennai: Although the airport expansion works were kicked off on Monday, residents and builders at Kolapakkam, Manapakkam, Tharapakkam and Gerugambakkam are in a quandary because the state government is going slow on acquiring land marked for construction of a parallel runway at the airport.

Residents and builders whose land was identified for the project are worried over the ambiguity in the land acquisition process. “It has been close to a year since the district administration served notices to the landowners stating that the land has been marked for acquisition for airport expansion. Registration and construction have been stopped on the land marked for acquisition. But, there is no follow-up after that,” said a builder Ramesh C Soningara, whose two-acre land at Kolapakkam has been marked for acquisition.

Though the government has handed over 131 acres of the 1,069 acres land to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to extend the existing secondary runway, there is no sign of speeding up acquisition of the rest of the land for building a parallel runway. “The Airports Authority of India (AAI) or the state government are not saying clearly whether the parallel runway will come up or not. Hence, there was no need for either identifying or demarcating the land,” said Vijay Kumar, a resident.

Soningara said “we may not get adequate compensation because the value of the land adjacent to the land earmarked for acquisition is going up by the day. The district administration has frozen registration of property in the panchayats where land had been identified for the parallel runway. But, they are yet to take further steps,” he said.

Since registration has been stopped, the guideline value had remained stable. But the price of land in neighbouring areas has reportedly touched Rs 40 lakh per ground. However, “going by the yardstick followed by the state government for fixing compensation for the land acquired for extending the secondary runway, residents will get an approximate of Rs 244 per square feet, while the current selling price is Rs 1,583 per square feet,” said Soningara.

K Manivannan, a land owner, claimed that the existing price of land has touched Rs 7 crore per acre at Kolapakkam. But the government had fixed just Rs 1 crore per acre.

Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry, the AAI and the district administration have hinted that the parallel runway may be constructed under the next phase of airport expansion. Civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Monday urged the state government to hand over land for building a parallel runway.

During the inauguration of airport expansion works, civil aviation secretary Madhavan Nambiar said that the secondary runway and terminal buildings were being constructed as part of phase one of the airport expansion plan.

District collector of Kancheepuram Santosh Mishra maintained that the parallel runway project was very much on. “Acquisition is happening in a phased manner.”

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