Coimbatore: The city airport expansion project has got a shot in the arm with the district administration finalising the deal to acquire 134.2 acres of defence land for the same.
The move came after district collector T N Hariharan, along with revenue and defence officials, inspected the land here on Tuesday morning.
“We have been accelerating the land acquisition process for the airport expansion. In total, we will acquire 627.89 acres land spread across 24 blocks. The defence land is located at the 24th block. We conducted a joint inspection with the defence officials and the land will be acquired within a month,” Hariharan told TOI.
Of the 134.2 acres, 122 acres belong to the Indian Air Force, 5.82 acres to the Army and the remaining 6.38 acres to the Indian Navy. Earlier, the state government had promised the defence ministry to allocate another 134.2 acres of land in Kancheepuram district to facilitate the land acquisition for the airport expansion project and sent a proposal in this regard through the special district revenue officer (airport land acquisition), Radhamani.
The district collector also said negotiations with the land owners of 13 blocks have already been completed. “Talks are now on to strike a deal with the land owners of the remaining 10 blocks. We hope to complete the entire land acquisition process in three months and hand over the land to the Airport Authority of India (AAI). We have sent a proposal to the state government, seeking more than Rs 2,000 crore as compensation for the land acquisition,” Hariharan said.
The district administration had earlier fixed Rs 1,500 per sqft for housing land and Rs 900 per sqft for agriculture land. This would be the highest compensation to be given by the state government. The authorities have to raze down 634 houses for the land acquisition.
The AAI had been trying to expand the city airport for the past 10 years, but the project failed to take off due to issues associated with the land acquisition. The AAI’s plan is to expand the runway to 12,500ft long from 9,500ft.