3 blocks of land for airport expansion to be acquired by November-end

Coimbatore: The state government has begun to process and clear a few blocks of land, which were earmarked for acquisition, for the expansion of the city airport. District administration officials said all the procedures to acquire one of the 24 blocks were completed. Two more blocks are likely to be cleared within the next two weeks. They said the government was processing the land acquisition in blocks of three.
Though the price was fixed in May with the consent of almost 90% land owners, land registration is yet to be done and owners are yet to be paid the amount promised to them. However, the department incharge of land acquisition said the process was actively under way.

“All the clearances to acquire block 7 (Uppilipalayam) is in place. Files pertaining to blocks 1 and 19 have been half cleared. Funds for all the three blocks should arrive by and then we will go ahead with the land registration,” an official, who didn’t want to be named, said.

A government official, meanwhile, said they were considering files of three blocks at a time. The state government has earmarked 24 blocks of land (around 450 acres) for acquisition. “Recently, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami had asked the district administration to speed up the land acquisition process. Once the first set of blocks get cleared, the remaining 21 blocks will be processed faster.”

Land owners, who have agreed to the price fixed by the government, said they were pinning hope on the official statements. “We regularly meet the district revenue officer, requesting him to speed up the land acquisition process, so that we could buy alternate plots of land. Hope it does not keep delaying until prices of nearby land shoot up,” said a land owner, requesting anonymity.

Land holders, who have leased out their property, are the most anxious lot because they have reportedly not received lease/rent amount for the past six years. “Only after clearing these arrears they could register the land. Funds for clearing these arrears too will be released only as part of land acquisition. It is critical that they don’t delay it any longer, so that the people, who have already bought land on bank loans hoping to repay it with the government payout, can do so without delay,” said S Jagannathan, a land owner in Singanallur.