Mumbai airport authorities face a daunting task

At least 80,000 families. That’s the number of slum dwellers the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) will have to rehabilitate, as their plan to modernise Chhatrapati Shivaji Domestic and International Airport at Sahar and Santacruz gets underway.
With political pressure mounting on one side and roughly three-years on hand to complete the rehabilitation, MIAL is straddled with concerns to find about 200 acres of land and tenements. If successful, this would be the largest slum rehabilitation scheme ever undertaken in the world.
The issue came to fore when at a meeting with Chief Secretary D K Sankaran, MIAL officials requested the state government to allot them revenue lands in the city. Stating that it will be improper to allot public land, the government asked MIAL to bid for these plots, when auctioned.
The MIAL is worried as the onus to procure land and tenements lies on them. MIAL has paid an advance fee of Rs25 crore, of the total agreement of Rs 160 crore it has signed with MMRDA.
28/03/07 Manisha Singhal & Rajshri Mehta/Daily News & Analysis

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Categories: Airports Mar 2007