In what is being seen as a desperate bid to get the Navi Mumbai Airport project off the ground, the state government has decided to regularise thousands of unauthorised structures falling outside the core area of the Navi Mumbai Airport project. The decision to give entitlement to project affected persons (PAPs) and structures, thus far considered illegal as they have encroached upon land owned by the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), was taken by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday.
The Chief Minister also asked CIDCO to provide transfer of development rights (TDR) to cattle shed owners in the project’s core area to settle the issue which has held up the rehabilitation process for several months. A decision was also taken to provide entitlement of two separate plots owned by a married couple; earlier, such holdings were counted as a single family unit.
Arun Deshmukh, executive engineer, CIDCO, said, “We are not sure how many structures will eventually benefit from this decision yet. A count is yet to done.”
Mr. Fadnavis directed CIDCO officials to offer the same entitlement currently being accorded to those already regularised within the core project area to these structures, or three times the affected plot area, among other perks. Though the meeting, chaired by the CM, had been held on May 24, Mr. Fadnavis approved the minutes on Friday.
“Those structures that encroach upon CIDCO land but fall outside the core area must also be now given the same benefits as the earlier regularised structures; these may later fall in the core area if it is increased but still be under the cut-off date of September, 2013,” a directive from the CM to CIDCO stated.
A senior CIDCO official said the BJP government had tried hard to get approvals for the project, which has been held up for many years. “The decisions indicate the government is desperate to have something to show after completing two years in power,” the official added.
Home-owners who will be giving up their properties will get rent for the period between July 2016 and December 2017 as compensation, in addition to Rs 12 per sq ft.
The Rs. 15,000-crore project has been stuck in land acquisition and environmental hurdles for the last 20 years, and took off only after CIDCO finally invited bids this year. The airport, expected to reduce the load on the congested Mumbai airport, has its core area spread over 2,867 acres and the terminal building likely to cover 5,23,000 sq m. It will cater to an estimated 60 million passengers by 2030.
Home-owners
who will be giving up their properties will get rent as compensation
