Land acquisition to be done soon, says Tiruchy Collector

TIRUCHY: The land acquisition process for runway expansion for Tiruchy International Airport is nearing completion and the entire process will be over by March end, said the Tiruchy Collector M Pradeep Kumar.

Despite the land acquisition for the runway expansion having been very slow than expected, the Tiruchy district administration which is responsible for transferring the identified land could achieve only 30 per cent of the required lands for the past years.

Now that the new terminal has been inaugurated and the need for a longer runway is inevitable, Chief Minister MK Stalin has assured Prime Minister Narendra Modi transferring of the land needed for the expansion at the earliest.

While the government land including the land owned by defence department were smoothly held, a few land owners were hesitant to hand over the land while the farmers’ associations have been fighting against the district administration against converting the cultivable land for the purpose.

“We have been sorting out the problems one by one and by March end, the entire process would be completed and the land would be handed over for the runway expansion”, Collector M Pradeep Kumar told DT Next.

The Collector said that out of the total required land, 71-hectare land (175.444 acre) was to be acquired.

“Among the land, a few are patta lands and a private negotiation is underway and for the other, we are going by the act. The private negotiation has been going on smoothly and we hope the entire process would be completed by March 31,” the Collector said.