Funds for two more blocks likely in year end

Coimbatore: The district administration says the fund announced by municipal administration and rural development minister S P Velumani would go towards settling a portion of the landowners in block 7.
Officials say funds for some land in at least two more blocks are likely to be announced by the end of this year. Though it has been more than six months since almost 90% of the landowners agreed to a price fixed by the government, not a single cent of land has been registered or a landowner reimbursed.

On November 10, Velumani announced that the government had released Rs 75 crore as the first phase for acquisition of land for expansion of the airport. “This money is for block 7 which was recently cleared by the government,” said Govindaraju, an official in charge of acquisition process.

“Block seven is a primary residential area of land coming up to 11.22 acres,” he said. The block has 70 buildings and 176 landowners. “The cheque is expected next week,” he added.

Meanwhile, surveyors have begun surveying and measuring the land and buildings in block seven. “We will need to check if all their holdings are as per ownership documents, our compensation extends to female members and heirs too so that has to be checked. We will then enumerate the number of trees, furniture in their houses and the house itself,” said Govindaraju. “We will then get them to sign an agreement in our format agreeing to hand over the building, land and accessories to us,” he added.

Compensation for block 1 and 11 too are expected by this year end. “While block 1 is land under lease, block 11 is cultivable land. “These blocks do not have many buildings, hardly one or two,” said another official. “These two blocks will amount to another 45 acres with around 400 landowners,” he said.

While blocks 3, 12 and 20 were discussed at the state-level committee meetings, it is yet to be cleared by many government departments. “The heavily residential areas next to the airport including GKR Nagar and Chinniampalayam, coming under block 16,17 and 18, where many landowners are protesting will be dealt with finally,” said the official.