Despite release of funds, land acquisition for Agra airport remains on hold

The demand for an International Airport in Agra is over two decades old and every time there is a regime change in the state or at the Centre, this demand gains prominence, but as the elections pass, it is again pushed into the background.

When Narendra Modi became the prime minister, his Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma came several times to Agra and promised that the city will get an international airport very soon, but a few months later, Sharma got an international airport approved in his own constituency Jewar.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party government in UP decided to build a separate civil terminal in Agra, outside the Air Force campus, but initially, the paucity of funds kept the project hanging, and then, the regime changed in the state. The Yogi Adityanath government promised that it will release the funds for land acquisition immediately after taking over, but the funds were only released six months later.

Now, even with the funds at hand, the local administration is not acquiring the land since the past over twenty days, claiming that the villagers are not willing to let go of their land at the rates they had agreed to in the Samajwadi Party government.

According to the information available with India Today, 16.5 hectares of land has so far been acquired, which includes the land acquired during the Samajwadi Party government. The total acquisition demand made by the Airports Authority of India stands at 23.32 hectares, which will facilitate the construction of a brand new air terminal which will be directly connected to the existing runway of the Kheria Air Force base in Agra.

Talking to India Today, Rajiv Tiwari, president of Agra International Airport Sangharsh Samiti, said that the land of villages Dhanauli, Balhaira and Abhaypura has been chosen for the construction of the new terminal. During the Samajwadi Party government, 14.07 hectares had been acquired and the balance funds of Rs 64.94 crore was released only in August 2017 to acquire the remaining 9.25 hectares of land.

He said that as soon as the funds arrived, the administration started acquiring the remaining land, but only after the acquisition of 2.5 hectares of land, the process stopped due to disputes over the title on several pieces of land, including a large plot of 3 hectares. The District Magistrate held a hearing for three hours on the title suit of this plot recently, but there was no resolution.

Apart from this, several other farmers have also refused to sell their lands. The administration is not ready to acquire the land forcibly to avoid creating an unpleasant situation for the state government which is already facing flak on several other issues, so the land acquisition has been paused.

Agra Tourist Welfare Chamber Secretary Vishal Sharma said that when the civil air terminal proposal had been approved in 2013 itself, the state government should have made all the necessary arrangements for the acquisition of land, including resolving the title suits of all the earmarked plots in advance. However, both the Samajwadi Party and the subsequent BJP government dragged their feet on the process of acquisition. Even then, the administration did not take up these land issues at priority and as a result, the farmers changed their mind.

He said that the UP Government was quick in naming the upcoming civil terminal in Agra after the BJP ideological icon Deen Dayal Upadhyay, but when it comes to facilitating the construction of the airport, it is offering no assistance at all. He said that there was still time and the land acquisition needs to be completed before the next crop season, otherwise many farmers could start preparing their land for the next season and this could become a major farmer-rights issue, further delaying the construction of the civil air terminal.