Airport costs 4L their homes
The modernisation and expansion of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport will affect four lakh residents in Mumbai.
By Clara Lewis & Manju V, TNN |
MUMBAI: It is probably the largest displacement and relocation in the city in modern times. Four lakh residents will be shifted from the periphery of the airport to other areas in the suburbs so that the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport's modernisation and expansion can be completed by 2013.
But two years after the state began the process of acquiring 276 acres of land needed for the expansion, the project crawls along, mired in controversy, protests and red tape. The residents - who include 7,000 families in Sahar Village, a gaothan (land for settlement) housing original inhabitants of the city - want to see a clear resettlement plan before they allow a survey of the eligible homes.
"Lock one house, give a key to a new house. This is our slogan. Unless the government follows this norm, it will find it difficult to move anyone out. There will only be resistance," says N Sureshan, general secretary, Airport Authority Zopadpatti Sangharsha Samiti.
Two weeks ago, Baliram Pawar, additional collector of Housing, asked Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to show its resettlement plan. "Unless the R&R plan is clarified to the public or their elected representatives, it will not be possible to carry out the survey," said Pawar.
While politicians also watch keenly, as huge demographic shifts will lead to transformed and depleted civic, assembly and parliamentary constituencies, MIAL officials are on tenterhooks as they hope the airport, which handled 23.4 million passengers last fiscal, will handle 40 million by 2013.
Despite the magnitude of the displacement, none of the concerned authorities - MMRDA, MIAL, Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd, Slum Rehabilitation Authority and BMC — are accepting overall responsibility for the resettlement.
But two years after the state began the process of acquiring 276 acres of land needed for the expansion, the project crawls along, mired in controversy, protests and red tape. The residents - who include 7,000 families in Sahar Village, a gaothan (land for settlement) housing original inhabitants of the city - want to see a clear resettlement plan before they allow a survey of the eligible homes.
"Lock one house, give a key to a new house. This is our slogan. Unless the government follows this norm, it will find it difficult to move anyone out. There will only be resistance," says N Sureshan, general secretary, Airport Authority Zopadpatti Sangharsha Samiti.
Two weeks ago, Baliram Pawar, additional collector of Housing, asked Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to show its resettlement plan. "Unless the R&R plan is clarified to the public or their elected representatives, it will not be possible to carry out the survey," said Pawar.
While politicians also watch keenly, as huge demographic shifts will lead to transformed and depleted civic, assembly and parliamentary constituencies, MIAL officials are on tenterhooks as they hope the airport, which handled 23.4 million passengers last fiscal, will handle 40 million by 2013.
Despite the magnitude of the displacement, none of the concerned authorities - MMRDA, MIAL, Housing Development Infrastructure Ltd, Slum Rehabilitation Authority and BMC — are accepting overall responsibility for the resettlement.
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