18.2.18

Purandar airport work will start soon: CM Fadnavis

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said the work of the proposed international airport would start “very soon”.

Fadnavis gave this assurance a day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Navi Mumbai airport on Sunday during the Magnetic Maharashtra meet. The Navi Mumbai airport is expected to start operations in 2019. Fadnavi earlier said the Purandar airport could be operational by 2020-21.

Pune district collector Saurabh Rao said the landholders in the seven villages would be compensated according to the new ready reckoner rates to be announced in April stated. The collector’s panel on Thursday proposed 9% increase in RR rates for Pune rural areas to the state government as against the last year’s 15.6%. The collector said the landholders of the seven villages would get good price for their plots under the new rates.

“The land acquisition process should start only in April. If the landowners opt for the direct purchase system, they will be compensated according to the RR rate or the market rate, whichever is more,” said Rao.

The collector said the chief minister directed to expedite the airport project. Fadnavis also asked to carry out the land acquisition by taking people into confidence.

The land acquisition process can be initiated by the district administration only after the state government issued a notification. The administration has prepared the survey numbers with the names of each beneficiary from the village document (8a) in its anticipation.

This data will give the administration a clear idea on the land holding of each beneficiary. The administration is also fixing the rates of each land holding according to the RR rate. The collector has sought appointment of 25 persons for land acquisition in the seven villages. “I will want three persons for every village. The rest will operate from the district headquarters,” Rao said.

With a target of six to eight months set by the administration to acquire land for the proposed airport, five deputy collector-rank officials have been sought by the district administration to expedite the acquisition process in the seven villages. Besides, the administration will be appointing a private agency to conduct aptitude test so that an eligible member from each of the project-hit families got a job in the proposed airport project post-skill training. Strengthening women self-help groups is area of focus because their help would be required for various initiatives for the proposed airport.

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