Centre to Chavan: Remove slums round Mumbai airport

309 acres of land around the airport is occupied by slum dwellers

Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju has written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to urgently consider measures to rehabilitate slum dwellers round the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), Mumbai, to lessen security concerns on aircraft operations and ease the expansion and development at the airport.

A ministry official said, “There are 309 acres round the airport occupied by slum dwellers. We have written to the state government to come up with a rehabilitation scheme. Around 150 acres can be for low-cost housing to the dwellers.”

Raju urged Chavan to look at means to rehabilitate the dwellers.

He wrote, “The recent attacks at the Karachi airport point to the necessity of ensuring the threat perceptions to the airports are lessened and the issues on security are given highest importance. Unless land is made available for the development, the airport will become saturated soon. It is imperative to increase the passenger handling capacity.”

GVK-led Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) had entered a state government support agreement (SGSA) in 2006. According to it, the Maharashtra government had assured of “best efforts” in providing support to MIAL and to Airports Authority of India (AAI) in clearing the encroached land. In 2006, MIAL had entered an agreement with Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority for the removal and rehabilitation of dwellers.

In November, MIAL had approached the state government for the removal of the encroachment for modernisation programmes. The original plan was to rehabilitate and clear the slums by 2011. The state government has not stated a timeline for conducting and completing a survey to identify the dwellers eligible for rehabilitation. About 90,000 families live on 309 acres of 1,981 acres earmarked for modernisation.

MIAL has been operating the airport on a 30-year lease from AAI. Given the delays in the rehabilitation programme, MIAL recently ended its contract with Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL), saying it had failed to meet the 2011 deadline for the clearance and resettlement. But HDIL contested the decision.