Jewar airport: Total cost of land acquisition is Rs 4,500 cr, says BN Singh, District Magistrate, GB Nagar
A few days after the Gautam Buddh District Administration transferred 1,334 hectares of land required for the first phase of Jewar Airport project to the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), BN Singh, District Magistrate, GB Nagar, told Moneycontrol that the told cost of land acquisition, compensation and rehabilitation for the mega airport project is Rs 4,500 crore.
“The district administration on January 27 transferred the last parcel of land acquired for Jewar airport to the Yamuna Authority. In total, 1,334 hectares of land has been transferred in the first phase. This acquisition was done in record time of just about six months. This is perhaps the fastest ever under the new Act,” said Singh, adding that about Rs 3,060 crore have already been disbursed as compensation to farmers.
As for the way forward, he said the next challenge would be to give compensation against assets acquired.
“In case somebody is not willing to take up the job (option), we will have to give Rs 5 lakh per adult. That process will be completed within a month or so. The third phase will be re-habilitate and resettle these people for which we have identified the place Jewar Banger. It is about 48 hectares of land. The process is on. The rehabilitation and resettlement process should be over in the next one-and-half years
The mega project will definitely boost the real estate market in the region, he told Moneycontrol.
“This district was an industrial area. Both the activities (industrial and real estate) have stagnated. This mega infrastructure activity combined with the dedicated freight corridor, which is coming up in Dadri and is going to be a logistics hub, will give a fillip to all such activities, including real estate and industry,” he said.
Commenting on the circle rates in the area, Singh said: “Economic slowdown hurt the circle rates in areas where the land parcels were acquired for the development of the airport. However, we made sure we give the best price to the farmers.”
The collector decides on the circle rate every August under various categories – residential, commercial, institutional and industrial. “The circle rate of the area was not increased this year because of the overall slowdown in the market. Transactions had slowed down and therefore the circumstances were not conducive to increasing the circle rates,” he said.
“Despite slowdown, we did not reduce the circle rates as we did not want the compensation to farmers to be impacted. To ensure there was no loss to the farmers, we did not reduce the circle rates in the area,” he added.
It should be mentioned here that some farmers in six villages — Ranhera, Rohi, Parohi, Kishorpur, Dayanatpur and Banwaribas — had approached the Allahabad high court, seeking higher compensation for their land. While the administration has offered a price of Rs 2,500 per square metres, some farmers have demanded that they should get Rs 3,600 per square metres.
“The compensation amount for those landowners, who did not accept compensation, has been deposited with the land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement tribunal set up in the district as per the Section 76/77 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013,” he said.
Going forward, the land will have to be handed over to Zurich International AG to develop the first phase of the project. The total land required for the entire project is 5,000 hectares. A special purpose vehicle Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) has been constituted to execute the Jewar airport project.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/real-estate/jewar-airport-total-cost-of-land-acquisition-is-rs-4500-cr-says-bn-singh-district-magistrategb-nagar-4876781.html