PUNE: Civic body has been advised by the divisional commissioner of Pune, Dipak Mhaisekar, on Wednesday, to immediately start acquiring land of private parties to be given to the Airports Authority of India for the expansion of the Lohegaon Airport.
Mhaisekar, the Pune divisional commissioner, said that there were just two private landowners and they had given their consent for the acquisition.
He further said that the letter of consent needs to be signed by landowners. It is hoped that the process will finish within a week’s time. In total, around 27 acres of land will be acquired. Until now, no land has been acquired.
Another official in the know of developments said that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has informed that the acquisition process had begun. According to the instructions given, the process should not be delayed. The interested private landowners should be given compensation as per the market rate of land and a consent letter should be taken from them.
Recently, Pune’s deputy mayor Siddharth Dhende said that a meeting was convened by the PMC commissioner, Saurabh Rao, in the presence of Pune airport director Ajay Kumar.
Rao had directed his officials in the meeting to hold talks with the private landowners regarding the land acquisition.
Dhende had said a five-acre plot next to the parking number-1 of the airport would be acquired by the PMC and given to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) soon so that the parking lot could be shifted to make way for the construction of the multi-storeyed parking lot.
The airport officials had stated that apart from setting up the temporary parking arrangement, the cargo area would be shifted to the plot.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) earlier transferred 15.84 acres of land to the AAI for the airport’s expansion. In lieu of that, the state government has to provide around 15 acres of land to the IAF and 10 acres to the AAI.
Infrastructure committee chairman Nitin Gadkari last year told the state to immediately transfer 25 acres of land to the IAF and AAI. Some important road projects for proper airport connectivity is stuck because of the delay in the land acquisition process.
Source: ET Realty