Social impact survey for second phase of Noida airport begins

GREATER NOIDA: Expediting the process to acquire land for the second phase of the Noida International Airport at Jewar, the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration decided to notify Section 4 of the Land Act on Wednesday, which initiates the social impact assessment

GREATER NOIDA: Expediting the process to acquire land for the second phase of the Noida International Airport at Jewar, the Gautam Budh Nagar district administration decided to notify Section 4 of the Land Act on Wednesday, which initiates the social impact assessment.

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The provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, state that the concerned agency can take two-six months to carry out the survey and submit the report. This survey studies the socio-economic condition of farmers, whose land is to be acquired for a said project. Once the assessment is done, Section 11 of Act will be implemented, inviting objections from the public, after which the government will implement Section 19 and compensation will be decided and distributed to land owners, as per rules.

To be used for the third runway and commercial MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul work of airplanes) centre, the six villages for which the survey will be taken up are Karauli Bangar, Dayanat Pur, Kureb, Ranhera, Birampur and Mundera as part of the second phase of construction. About 1,185 hectare of private land has to be acquired from these. Under the first phase, 1,334 hectares was acquired on which the work is likely to begin at the ground by mid-2021.

“The state-owned Gautam Buddha University, which has conducted the assessment in the past, is likely to start the survey work this week. The study is a mandate under the Act in order to find out how many people will be losing their agricultural land, properties and livelihood. The assessment team will also have to ascertain how many people will lose livelihood in an indirect manner due to the acquisition,” said Balram Singh, additional district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.

The acquisition will require almost ₹2,891 crore, for which the administration has already received ₹1,084 crore from Uttar Pradesh government. The remaining amount has to be arranged by the Noida, Greater Noida, and Yamuna Expressway authorities.

Out of the 1363 hectare of land needed for the second phase, 1,185 hectare which is to be acquired is privately owned. The remaining land is already owned by the state government.

Besides this, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved ₹22 crore for the construction and development of religious and other recreational structures which will be displaced due to the acquisition under phase 1.

Officials said farmers are shifting into a newly-developed airport township at the Jewar Bangar area. They said the farmers, who are getting residential plots in this township, had been demanding religious and cultural places. The land, on which almost 30 religious structures stand, across communities, will be acquired once construction activity begins under phase 1. Apart from temples and mosques, multiple small religious shrines, Eidgah, Ambedkar sthals and one madarsa will be developed. As many as 3,627 people have been displaced from their homes due to the acquisition so far.