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The Airport Development Authority has decided to drop residential settlements from the target land for the new Pune airport, but local residents have said they will continue their opposition to the acquisition of land.
A total of over 2,400 hectares of land, in the jurisdiction of seven gram panchayats in Purandar taluka, had been earmarked for the new airport which, according to the state government, will come up in the next five years. But plans to acquire land at the earmarked site had faced opposition from local residents.
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Vishwas Patil, managing director of the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC), held a meeting with senior officials of the Pune district administration on Friday. He said a German company, which had earlier prepared the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Berlin, Munich, Kuwait and Frankfurt, had been awarded the contract for preparing the DPR for the new Pune airport.
Patil said the obstacle limitation survey, conducted by the administration and the corporation, will be sent to the MADC board of directors for a review. The board will give its recommendations, after which the report will be sent to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. “It’s likely to take two to three months… not more than that,” said Patil.
If the residential settlements are taken out of the total land earmarked for the airport, it will only marginally shrink the area of the site, said Patil.
“It’s a fact that none of the houses will have to be demolished. The residential settlements from all seven villages – Pargaon, Udachiwadi, Vanpuri, Kumbarvan, Ekhatpur, Manjauri and Khanauri – will remain intact. The area around the settlments, farm or pastoral area, would be acquired after giving good compensation to owners of the land,” said Patil.
But the latest development is not going to mellow the opposition to the project, said Dutta Dhurange, president of the group which is opposing land acquisition for the airport.
“What they are essentially saying is that they will let us stay here, they won’t touch our houses, but they will take away our livelihood. What’s the purpose of continuing to stay here when our farm lands will be gone,” said Dhurange.
He said it was not possible to find a solution to the issue unless the MADC and district officials decided to talk to the locals and listen to their grievances.
