PAPs to Be Part Owners in Navi Mumbai International Airport: Deadlock Broken
The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) work can finally take off as the deadlock between the Project Affected Peoples (PAPs) and Maharashtra government has come to an end. Apart from the earlier promised compensation for the PAPs, CIDCO has now agreed to make them part owners in the upcoming NMIA project.
The deadlock
The NMIA project has been delayed for a long time primarily due to two problems. One was the environmental clearance. The second and the bigger one was the conflict between the affected people in the surrounding areas and CIDCO, the nodal agency which is developing the airport. The first phase of the airport project was to be completed in 2014. However, the work hasn’t yet started due to this deadlock.
The Navi Mumbai International Airport is being built at Kopra-Panvel area of Navi Mumbai with an intention of decongesting Mumbai’s current air traffic. However, CIDCO faced a huge challenge when it came to land acquisition. The project affected people (PAP) refused to allow land acquisition without a satisfactory compensation. The CIDCO and Maharashtra government offered them a compensation of 22.5% of developed land instead of the regular 12.5%, the highest compensation for land acquisition till now in the country.
However, the deadlock was not broken as the PAPs asked for a better compensation. They wanted 35% of developed land on a net basis.
New compensation
The stalemate between the PAPs and CIDCO is finally over with CIDCO offering them a new compensation. Following are the features of the new compensation.
1) The PAPs will get 22.5% of developed land.
2) Earlier, the PAPs were getting developed land after 10-15 years. Now, they will be allotted the developed land the day they sign the consent award.
3) Instead of an FSI of 1.5, they will now get an FSI of approximately 2.
4) For rehabilitation, they will get 3 times the footprint area of their existing homes. They will als receive their existing plot’s construction cost.
5) Apart from these, each household of the affected families will get 100 shares of the final project. They will also be entitled to dividends.
6) CIDCO has prepared specific vocational and training packages for the people in the age group of 18-35 years. CIDCO is planning to provide jobs in the NMIA for suitable people after its completion.
CIDCO needs to acquire a total of 2,270 hectares of land for beginning the project. Currently, it has about 1,570 hectares in its possession. It will finalize the request for qualification (RFQ) and issue it by December.
With the final hurdle for the airport crossed, the project has brought over Rs. 10,000 crore land in the real estate market. This area is outside the project area. The land which was valued at Rs. 200 per sq.mt till recently will now fetch an average of Rs. 1,00,000 per sq.mt.
