COIMBATORE: The district administration has decided to use the reserve fund of Rs 26 crore to acquire more land for the much-awaited airport expansion project within the next fortnight.
The move has made many land owners, who are affected by the project, happy.
Landowners hoped that the district administration would speed up the process and conclude the land acquisition by the end of the year.
On Tuesday night, collector G S Sameeran convened a meeting with the special divisional revenue officer incharge of the land acquisition for the airport, Ashokan, district revenue officer Ramaduraimurugan, and airport director R Mahalingam to review the current status of the project.
The collector said, “We have Rs 26 crore in our funds.
I have asked them to use the same to acquire some land without any litigation issues like from block I and block II in the next fortnight.
I have also asked the special DRO incharge of land acquisition to do the needful to get the allotted fund of Rs 1,000 crore released immediately.
It is a matter between departments now.” The collector has also ordered to hand over the land already acquired for Rs 90 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at the earliest.
“We have asked the registration offices, which are now giving only 50 tokens a day, to give 100 tokens, allowing all the land owners to transfer the land to the AAI.
Some land is stuck in litigations in the high court and Supreme Court.
Those cases will be taken up and handled without any delay,” he said.
Many landowners heaved a huge sigh of relief.
C R Subramanian, former panchayat head from Chinniampalayam, said it was important to complete the land acquisition immediately by making payments to the landowners.
“People are in a fix as they know they can’t continue to live here, but don’t have money to buy alternative houses or land.
While we can’t buy anything in the surrounding areas such as Sulur, Arasur and Thennampalayam, where land prices have shot up, with the compensation, the wait will be over if they complete the process.” Natesan, another landowner in block VI, said if they get the compensation, though inadequate, they could move on.
“We pray it gets over by this financial year.”