Coimbatore International Airport, currently situated on 420 acres; The runway is 9,900 feet long. If this is extended to 12,500 feet, larger aircraft can be operated from here; This will increase the industrial prosperity of the Kongu region.
An ordinance was issued in 2010 during the DMK regime to acquire 644 acres for expansion of the airport. Adding to that, the Coimbatore airport will become a 1064 acre airport.
Department of Defense land!
The Tamil Nadu Revenue Department has completed 95 percent of the land acquisition work. Of the land to be acquired, 148.39 acres are owned by the Central Defense Department. The Tamil Nadu Government should acquire the land and hand it over to the Airport Authority. Actions for this have been complained of very late.
When asked, Coimbatore Collector Kranthikumar said, “It is the central government department that is going to do the expansion. Therefore, there is a possibility of changing the land sector wise. For this, a tripartite meeting will be held soon,” he said.
Accordingly, a letter has been sent on behalf of the Defense Department’s Madras Circle, approving the Airport Authority to carry out the expansion work without handing over the land to the Tamil Nadu Government.
In the letter, it was approved that the work can be carried out on 148.39 acres owned by the Defense Department.
It also mentions that this land will be handed over on the basis that the Tamil Nadu government will give the same amount of land as the value of that land (EVL-Equal Value Land). Thus, once the private land acquisition is completed and handed over, there is no possibility of any hindrance in the Airport Authority starting the expansion work immediately.
The compensation is Rs.2300 crores…we can think again!
For expansion of Coimbatore airport, land is acquired in five revenue villages. Uppilipalayam- 60.6 acres, Singhanallur- 60.9 acres, Kalapatti- 171.4 acres, Irukur- 280.27 acres, Neelumpur- 32 acres, a total of 573.49 acres of land is being acquired.
As these are well-developed areas, land values are high. The current compensation will not cover that.However, for the land to be acquired for airport expansion, compensation has been fixed at an average rate of Rs 900 per square foot, Rs 3.91 lakh per cent land and Rs 3.91 crore per acre. According to this, a total compensation of over 2100 crore rupees is due for the total 575 acres.
In this, commercial building and residential building are valued separately and compensation is given. In total, the compensation amount will exceed Rs 2300 crore. Instead of spending such a huge amount, many people are of the opinion that they could have taken two thousand acres of land just outside the city of Coimbatore and constructed a new airport.
-Our Special Correspondent-