Kerala issues land acquisition notification
KOCHI: Kerala government issued a notification to acquire 1000.28 hectares of land for the proposed Sabarimala Greenfield International Airport in Kotayam district. According to the notification, 441 holdings will be acquired from 47 land survey numbers. Lands included in blocks 19, 21, 22 and 23 of Erumeli South and Manimala villages are being acquired for the project. A significant portion of the Cheruvalli Estate measuring 2264.09 acres is also being taken over.
This land belongs to survey numbers 281, 282, and 283, which are part of the Erumeli South village and survey number 299, a part of block number 21 of Manimala village. People who have objections to the land acquisition have 15 days to report their concerns.
According to the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Act, 2013, the preliminary notification under section 11(1) must be issued within one year from the date of submission of recommendations by the expert commitee on the social impact assessment report.
The expert commitee submited its recommendations on 22 August, 2023. Accordingly, the preliminary notification of land acquisition can be issued in August 2024. The land records of the landowners were checked and confirmed.
Ater inspecting the land records, the land survey was carried out. Following that, the final notification is now issued.
The state government has allocated Rs1.85 crore in the recent budget for the initial phase of the airport project, which is expected to be operational by 2027.
This budget allocation will cover feasibility studies and the preparation of a detailed project report. The allocation for the previous year was Rs 2.01 crore. Last December, the state government issued an order approving the acquisition of 2,570 acres of land for the project.
The order was issued based on the recommendations of an expert commitee that examined the social impact study report.
The choice to develop the project on the specified land was reached ater considering public demand, the minimum land requirement for the project and the unavailability of other suitable land options.
The state government has already received confirmation from the Union Ministry of Forests, Environment and Climate Change that the identified land is deemed suitable for the airport. The three-kilometre runway has been planned in the east-west direction at the centre of the estate.
In September 2022, the process for testing soil samples for constructing the runway of the proposed airport at Cheruvally Estate started. Authorities marked the area for collecting soil samples and a team of 10 labourers and machinery from Karnataka collected the soil samples.