Process to take consent for land acquisition for Purandhar airport to start from Monday

Local farmers had strongly protested the acquisition of land and two villages had passed Gram Sabha resolutions against the acquisition. Villagers had taken out rallies and stopped the process of land survey.

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The district collectorate had formed special teams to convince villagers for the land acquisition process, assuring that 10 per cent of developed plots would be given to people who give their consent for land acquisition.

Come Monday, the Pune District Collectorate will start acquiring consent for land acquisition for construction of an airport in Purandhar. Pune District Collector Jitendra Dudi said 3,000 acres of land would be acquired instead of the 7,000 acres originally planned for the airport.

“Consent can be given both at the District Collector’s office as well as the Sub Divisional Officer’s Purandhar office at Saswad,” Dudi told The Indian Express. The Purandar international airport would see acquisition of 3,000 acres of land spread across seven villages in Purandhar taluka of Pune district. The airport was sanctioned by the government in 2016, during Devendra Fadnavis’ tenure as Chief Minister. Work had considerably slowed down in the subsequent years but accelerated after Fadnavis came back to power in 2024. The initial estimates had talked about acquisition of 7,000 acres, which now has been revised to 3,000 acres. The district collector hopes there would be no opposition to acquisition.

Local farmers had strongly protested the acquisition of land and two villages had passed Gram Sabha resolutions against the acquisition. Villagers had taken out rallies and stopped the process of land survey. The district collectorate had formed special teams to convince villagers for the land acquisition process, assuring that 10 per cent of developed plots would be given to people who give their consent for land acquisition.

The demand for an international airport for Pune has been a long standing demand for the city and the district. Pune’s airport has severe flight restrictions as it is under the jurisdiction of the Air Force. Industries in Pune have long made demands for an international airport to serve the district and the greater part of Western Maharashtra. The airport would help Solapur and other parts of Marathwada also. Earlier, the airport was supposed to be constructed in Khed taluka but technical difficulties had stopped the land acquisition there.

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