Public hearing for airport land acquisition on Jan 24

Thiruvananthapuram: The public hearing in connection with the land acquisition for development of Trivandrum International Airport will be held on January 24. As per the notification released on Friday, the public hearing would be held at Collectorate conference hall from10.30 am to finalize the draft rehabilitation and resettlement package.
An area of 18 acres in Vayyamoola in Pettah village has been identified for the purpose. The airport authority needs the land to extend Terminal-II of the airport for improving the standard of airport operations and services.

The notification has asked the people associated with the land and property demarcated for airport development to report to the administrator and deputy collector (land acquisition) with documents for the public hearing.

The list showing land survey numbers, type of land and area and the landowners has been published in the notification.

Ahead of the public hearing, the district administration has also published the draft rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package for the evictees. The draft report included details related to rehabilitation, the list of displaced families, survey numbers and resident tenants.

Interestingly, the district administration had handed over the draft R&R package details to the residents in October 2018. The residents then complained that the draft report did not include their demands such as job opportunity, the area of resettlement for evictees and people with no title deed and refused to accept it.

However, the new R&R package doesn’t have major differences from the draft package.

The draft package states that the benefits mentioned may vary based on the documents submitted by people during the public hearing.

Meanwhile, chairman of Vallakkadavu-Vayyamoola joint action council A Saifuddin Haji said that they had not seen the notification yet. “We will take a decision in this regard after consulting the landowners,” he said.