Navi Mumbai airport clears last hurdle: All you need to know

The last major hurdle for kickstarting the Navi Mumbai international airport project has finally been cleared as Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan offered the country’s biggest compensation and rehabilitation package to the project-affected farmers.

The Navi Mumbai airport is likely to take off now as it has gotthe signal from project-affected people (PAPs). They will get 22.5 percent of the developed land with an average 2 floor space index (FSI), but no cash compensation.Farmers will also get triple the size of their plots to construct houses. As construction cost, the state will offer them Rs 1,000 per square metre.

The affected families will also get 100 shares in the companies which will develop the airport. This will make them part owners of the airport project and they will be entitled to the dividend.

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According to a report in the DNA, state government will also give vocational training to the project-affected people to help them get jobs in private and government sectors.Cidco will conduct a survey and aptitude tests and organise career counselling. It will also spend on providing necessary training for appearance of these youths for competitive exams.

[caption id=“attachment_822185” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The site for the new airport in Navi Mumbai. Reuters[/caption]

Earlier, the decision was to give 12.5 percent of the (developed) land and also cash compensation. However, the government and the farmers have now agreed on an additional 10 percent land.The project-affected had earlier pressed for compensation of Rs 20 crore per acre, and had first insisted on allocation of 40 percent and then 35 percent developed land. After hectic negotiations, it was decided that they would get 1.5 FSI for 12.5 percent of developed land and 2.5 FSI for the remaining 10% developed land.

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In other words, if a PAP offers 1 acre farm land, which is approximately worth around Rs 1 crore, for the project, he will get developed land worth at least Rs 3.5 crore once the project is ready, the ToI report said.

The value of the developed land after the foundation stone is laid will be worth Rs 16-17 crore a hectare. Earlier, PAPs were getting the 12.5 percent developed land after 10-15 years. Now, Cidco will make allot 22.5 percent developed land the day they sign the consent award, the Business Standard reported.

This is expected to pave the way for the City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the nodal agency for the project, for inviting request for qualification (RFQ) for the project. Delay in the acquisition of land had forced Cidco to defer the invitation of RFQ.

“We did what was being promised all along. We removed corruption from the 12.5 percent compensation and implemented village-wise development programmes for which we sanctioned Rs 200 crore. People saw our sincerity and knew we meant business,“City Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco) MD Sanjay Bhatia told The Times of India.

The Navi Mumbai airport is proposed to be developed as a second airport for Mumbai, as the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport reaches its optimum level of handling 40 million passengers a year by 2014.

According to a report in the Business Standard, of the 2,268 hectares required for the airport project, 1,572 hectares (government and private) are already in Cidco’s possession. Cidco is yet to acquire 475 hectares. The project had missedits original 2009 timeline by several years due to delays in environment clearances, which came in 2010, and land acquisition problems. The first phase of the project is now expected to be completed in three-and-a-half-years.

Ironically, the deal with the project affected people was sealed justtwo days before Chief Minister Chavan attended a meeting in New Delhi called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the bottlenecks in the progress of the green-field airport at Panvel.

According to a report in the Business Today, infra biggies like L&T and RInfra are interested in bidding for the project while GVK Infra has the first right of refusal for the project.