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Row over airport land acquisition ends
Airports Authority of India asked for only 614 acres of land and again the process has begun.
Nellore: The Greenfield Airport proposed in Nellore district in Public Private Partnership mode has been facing hurdles due to altered plans on land acquisition and volume to be acquired.
Initially, the district administration earmarked around 3,407.77 acres of land under Damavaram, Dagadarthi, Velupodu and K Kourugunta villages for the proposed airport in 2013. The stretch of land was 6-km long and 2-km wide which includes about 420 acres patta lands, 526 acres of DKT lands, 1,120 acres of forest land, 545 acres of government lands, 483 acres of CJSF lands, 30 acres of water tank and 281 acres of hilly terrain. Further, it was proposed to identify lands to an extent of nearly 2,480 acres for developing the airport in 2007.
Again, the decision was revised and efforts to acquire only 1,352 acres of lands began a couple of years ago due to changed design. Meanwhile, there were irregularities in survey for land acquisition, forcing the Collector to order for re-survey of lands. This has been continuing till now. Again, Airports Authority of India asked for only 614 acres of land and again the process has begun.
The Union government has accorded clearance in December last year and the RITES, a government of India enterprise, has provided a report to the Infrastructure of Andhra Pradesh Limited (INCAP) and also to the steering committee that accords permissions for new airports. As per the new plans, the airport will be developed into a full-fledged one for operations of ATR-72. The total project cost was pegged at Rs 293.11 cr and around Rs 176.48 crore will be spent in Phase-I.
There were speculations on the land cost and the farmers were also reluctant to hand over lands for the airport. Meanwhile, middlemen entered the scene and kicked off realty trade and other issues cropped up. With all this, the process got delayed.
However, District Collector M Janaki, downplays it, “The site proposed for the airport is best suitable for the Greenfield airport and we have changed the process of land acquisition. We are now acquiring around 600 acres of land for the facility. Due to delay in the process, farmers are also demanding for reasonable cost because of escalation in prices.”
