Land acquisition for airport: Collector S Venkateshapathy meets stakeholders

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of acquiring 18 acres of land for Thiruvananthapuram international airport expansion, district collector S Venkateshapathy visited the area on Sunday. A team of revenue officials is planning to visit the land to be acquired near Vallakadu on June 28 for a preliminary survey. According to sources, the district collector visited the areas to be acquired and held informal talks with the local people and leaders of the joint action council. The visit was also said to be a confidence-building exercise among the local people to avoid obstructions to the team of revenue officials scheduled to carry out initial survey and land demarcation.

An attempt by Revenue officials to demarcate the land in April faced strong protests from local people and politicians. The local people took the stand that any steps to acquire the land should be taken only after a social impact study. They had reiterated the stand at a meeting convened by Tourism Minister and local MLA Kadakampally Surendran last month. But the minister had maintained that steps like survey of land needed to be initiated simultaneously with the social impact study in order to avoid delay in land acquisition, which has been pending for many years.

The Loyola College of Social Sciences had already begun preliminary works on the social impact study of the area. Hence the local people are unlikely to obstruct revenue officials from the survey of the land on June 28. The government will finalise a compensation package for the evictees on the basis of the study. The government has already decided to initiate a negotiated purchase model for land acquisition, which could ensure better compensation for the land owners. The 18 acres required for airport expansion comprises land belonging to about 275 persons.