Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authorit eyes airport land
With its own land bank exhausting, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) is trying to acquire as much land as possible for the citys infrastructure development. As a part of this drive, the authority now has its eyes firmly set on the airport land.
The MMRDA, which has been appointed the Special Planning Authority (SPA) for the airport land, has called for suggestions and objections from people for developing the land in the near future.
The domestic and international airports, together, are spread across 2,290.69 acres. Out of this, 308.84 acres has been encroached by slums. With just 276 acres officially declared as land for slums, the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (Mial) a joint consortium of Airport Authority of India (AAI) and JVK has already started the rehabilitation of slums with the help from Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL).
The state government has appointed MMRDA as the nodal agency to carry out the rehabilitation process, and the the authority plans to utilise this land for development purposes once the rehabilitation is complete.
According to Anil Wankhede, assistant metropolitan commissioner, MMRDA, the authority has asked for suggestions and objections from people as it is mandatory to do so under the Maharashtra Regional Town Planning Act (MRTP) since the MMRDA is the SPA for airport land. Based on the suggestions and objections that are received, a detailed development plan (DP) will be chalked out for the land.
The DP may also include development on land surrounding the actual airport. According to sources, it may include possibility of new buildings and facilities like car parks, hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure developments around the domestic and international airports.
The earlier DP, which was prepared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 1991, did not have any details as it stated that the land belonged to AAI. That is when the government steeped in and appointed MMRDA as SPA for the airport land.