The long-pending tussle over the land acquisition for Coimbatore International Airport’s expansion could well reach an end soon as majority of the land owners have decided to accept the price proposed by the District Committee for Airport Expansion.
Attending a liaisoning meeting at the District Collectorate here on Tuesday, land owners who have property in the blocks of Uppilipalayam, Irugur and Kaalapatti, despite being hesitant to come to terms with the official terms initially, are gearing up to end the decade-long tug-of-war.
The meeting was organised on a short notice from the State Government and was headed by District Collector T.N. Hariharan. The committee originally had proposed to pay the land owners a maximum of Rs.600 per square foot (sq. ft.), which amounts to Rs.2.62 lakh per cent of land. In order to pacify the owners, double the price, i.e. Rs.1200 per sqft was proposed by the committee. And since the owners did not accept that too, the committee revised it to Rs.1,500 per sqft. The compensation for agricultural land was also fixed at ₹3.92 crores per acre (900 per square feet) for people from all the blocks.
Though the land owners close to the National Highway were not satisfied as they wanted double of what was proposed, majority of the land owners have decided to end the tussle for “practical reasons”.
According to Gowtham Dhamodharasamy, one of the land owners whose property is very close to the compound of the airport, the overall mood among land owners is to take up what is on offer. They have to consider the prospects of their property, which has not yielded them any profit because of the airport expansion, he added.
“Currently we are unable to do any development activity in our lands and are also unwilling to take up another court case, which may go on for years,” he told the Simplicity.
Meanwhile, close to 10 per cent of the land owners adjacent to the Avinashi Road claimed that the actual market rate stood at Rs.3000 per sq. ft. “The Government should either give us the actual market rate or provide us with alternative land within a radius of 5 km from this area along with the cost of construction. Small scale industries should also be compensated accordingly so that they could shift to a new place without much strain,” said Devaraj, one of the land owners.
The officials who were at the meeting said that they would inform the State Government of their demands and call for another meeting but refused to hike the price any more.
Details of land breakup
According to sources, of the 627.89 acres of land, which were earmarked by the airport authorities for acquisition, as much as 461.90 acres of land are with private owners currently. The remaining 134.32 acres belonged to military and the rest were wastelands.
Out of the total area under private parties, 65 per cent of the land are agricultural lands and the rest are used as residential colonies and industrial houses.