In a severe jolt to the Aranmula airport project, the revenue authorities have declared 232 acres on the project site as excess land.
The decision to declare total 340 acres of land as excess, which included the airport site, was taken at a meeting of the Kozhenchery Taluk Land Board chaired by deputy collector Abdul Samad, on April 10.
The land, comprising mostly paddy fields, was under the ownership of Abraham Kalamannil of the Mount Zion Group, who later sold it to the airport’s proprietors, the KGS Group. Of the 340 acres, the rest are in the nearby Kidangannur, Mezhuveli and Mallappuzhassery areas.
Kozhenchery Tahasildar Daniel Mathew said the acquisition of the excess land would begin this week itself. The entire 340 acres are now set to come under the land bank of the government.
The declaration of excess land was made on the basis of the Kerala Land Reforms Act of 1961, which pegged the land holding limit at 15 acres.
Abraham failed to get the revenue authorities’ permission, mandatory for keeping excess land.
Another piece of land bought by the KGS Group for the project, a 43-acre expanse, is also in limbo as this would soon be declared excess, sources said.