Journalism of Courage
After sending positive feelers for the proposed international airport and giving in-principle nod for the land in Chakan-Rajgurunagar belt that a central team had surveyed in December,the written report of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) arrived at MADC this week,raising a fresh hurdle. The report expresses concern over displacing a huge number of houses in the villages surveyed in Chakan-Rajgurunagar.
The detailed report received by the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) early this week states that the present site would require displacing of 1,008 houses as well as diversion of the Bhama river and the national highway 50. Some undulating terrain and the need of shifting these houses have made the site not feasible and a new area has to be considered,MADC officials said.
MADC officials stated they would have to survey an alternative site of 4,000 acres near the MIDC area and some adjacent areas. We would have to again survey the said area which would be around 30-40 km from the present site as the earlier survey conducted over a period of a month is not favourable, said MADC officials.
The runway is 2.5 km wide. The government is keen on reducing the width to 2 km and we are insisting on our stand, said MADC officials who had surveyed the earlier site.
According to the AAI report,nearly 498 houses in Chandoos area,11 from Kurkundi,101 from Koregaon Budruk,376 from Kiwale and 22 from Koregaon Khurd need to be displaced. The administration would not want to displace houses or shift or divert river Bhama. We have already intimated the Chief Secretary and the Pune district administration of the hurdles and have asked for a new site, added the official.
A central team had in December conducted an aerial survey and followed it with a detailed survey by an AAI team last month. The central team,after touring the areas,had given in-principle approval. Talks were on for land acquisition once the techno-feasibility study was ready. Now the whole process will be delayed further. Government officials who were part of the survey mention that they would like displacement of the least number of villagers possible and were not keen on acquiring irrigated land for the project.
Only after AAI clears the proposal can the district administration look at land acquisition and start the process of land acquisition. It had been decided that the government would allocate Rs 1,000 crore for land acquisition. According to the proposal,MADC was looking at spreading the airport across 1,200 hectares with two 6-km runways. The airport construction was being targeted to begin in 2015.
