Mumbai: East Indians, the city's original inhabitants, appear to have won the battle against the airport authorities to stay put in their land, though slum-dwellers around the airport area may not be so lucky.
While the quaint old-worldly East Indian homes are no longer marked for demolition under the city airport's ambitious makeover plan, about 80,000 families or four lakh people living in slums will be rehabilitated in the largest displacement in modern times. These are the highlights of the interim draft development plan recently put up for objections and suggestions by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA).
The MMRDA, special planning authority for the airport zone, says the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) area will exclude the gaothan areas of Sutar Pakhadi, Talao Pakhadi and Church Pakhadi.
Gaothan residents were served a land acquisition notice in 2007 but following huge protests, the survey was never conducted. The airport stands on farmlands that belonged to the East Indians, later acquired by the British for defence purposes. "We are happy the gaothans have been excluded. But they must withdraw the acquisition notices, else it will only mean that first they will evict slumdwellers and then villagers,'' said Nicholas Almeida, a former corporator leading opposition to acquisition of gaothan land.
Nevertheless the interim draft has drawn flak from social activists and political parties. The Centre for Urban Planning and Governance, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences in its objections and suggestions, said it is flawed. On the airport being spacially constrained - sought to be redressed by evicting slumdwellers - TISS said Mumbai airport is a brown-field and not a green-field project.
05/03/11 Times of India
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