Pune's New Airport:Miles to go

If Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has his way, the proposed international airport at Chakan-Rajgurunagar will get going in 2011. Patel sticks to his guns on the new international airport for the city even as the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and with the district collectorate officials have so far failed to break ice with the villagers who are resisting the land acquisition. Around 2,500 hectares need to be acquired from seven villages for the proposed airport. The chief minister as also the MIDC and district -level officers should take up responsibility and start the acquisition process at the earliest.It may be recalled that Patel, while visiting Pune last year, had declared that the “process of land acquisition would start soon” and had announced that the first flights at the airport will land by 2010-11. However, he was peeved that the land acquisition was going very slow. “Why can’t the state take any action,” he asked. Meanwhile, District Collector Prabhakar Deshmukh said that he would be addressing a meeting with the affected villagers as there were some objections raised by them. “I will be meeting some of the villagers next week and there would be a series of discussions,” he said. A senior MIDC officer said that they have no role as yet. “After the talks between villagers and the district collectorate officials, there will be suggestions and objections invited from the affected people. This will be followed by joint measurement of the area,” said the officer. The MIDC had been asked to acquire the land under Chapter 6 of the MIDC Act, 1961. However, with stiff opposition the district officers are adopting a cautious approach in holding a dialogue with the villagers. The villages include Waki Budruk, Pimpri Budruk, Chandoos, Kiwale, Koregaon Budruk, Shiroli and Wadgaon. The Civil Aviation Ministry and the state government has been planning an international airport near Pune for almost 10 years and only last year did the government give green signal and MIDC was assigned the task to acquire the land.