While the acquisition of land by the State Government for expanding the Coimbatore International Airport is yet to be completed, a section of the land owners, who had leased their lands 80 years ago, are complaining apathy by the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
The land owners have alleged that the AAI has defaulted the payment for the leased lands since 2013.
“Majority of the land owners are senior citizens who are unable to run from pillar to post to enquire about the payment. We want AAI to settle the payment at the earliest. Similarly, the State Government has to expedite payment of compensation for the lands acquired for airport expansion.
The airport expansion project is stuck for three decades and the land owners are put to suffer unnecessarily,” said P.R. Jeganathan, one of the land owners.
It was in 1939, 60.95 acres close to the runway of the airport were taken for lease by the Central Government under the Defence of India Act for defence purposes in view of the Second World War. In 1942, the government entered into an agreement with the land owners which said that the land would be handed overto them six months after the end of the war. However, the land was not handed over to the owners as per the agreement. The land, 22.54 acres in Singanallur village and 38.41 acres in Kalapatty village, came under the control of the Director General of Civil Aviation in 1947.
According to Mr. Jeganathan, the affected land owners are planning to meet Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, who will be coming for the inauguration of Codissia Industrial Parks on Wednesday, and represent their grievances.