Sunday, July 03, 2016

To expedite Navi Mumbai airport, govt to regularise encroachments

Mumbai: 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.
03/07/16 Sharad Vyas/The Hindu
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