KOTTAYAM: In a significant development, the state government has granted administrative sanction for the acquisition of land for the Sabarimala Greenfield International Airport project in Erumeli.
The order, issued by Additional Chief Secretary K R Jyothilal, empowers the government to proceed with the acquisition of land in accordance with the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation, and Resettlement (LARR) Act, 2013. The order specified that, as recommended by the expert committee, the government should consider the possibility of offering a special package when appointing an administrator for land acquisition under the LARR Act.
The new order was issued after considering the social impact assessment report, recommendations from the expert committee based on the SIA report, and the district collector’s report on it. In the report, the collector stated that land shall be acquired under section 7 (5) of the LARR Act.
This is the second time that the government is preparing to go through the land acquisition process.
The previous notifications for both SIA and land acquisition were revoked following objections from Ayana Charitable Trust (formerly Gospel for Asia) and residents whose lands were set to be acquired. They challenged in court the legitimacy of the initial SIA study, which was conducted by the Centre for Management Development, citing the organisation’s links with the state industries department.
As per the new order, a total of 1,039.87 hectares (2,570 acres) of land in Erumeli South and Manimala villages can be acquired for the airport project. This includes the 2,263-acre Cheruvally Estate, which is currently under the possession of the Ayana Charitable Trust, affiliated with K P Yohannan’s Believers Church and 307 acres located outside the estate.
The government will now issue a notification for land acquisition under section 11 (1) of the LARR Act, which is the preliminary notification for land acquisition.
Subsequently, it will begin the official survey of the land as per section 12 and prepare a file of the precise extent of the land to be acquired along with its survey numbers. It will be followed by a declaration of the rehabilitation and resettlement package, as outlined in section 19 (1) of the LARR Act.
Parallelly, STUP Consultants Ltd, appointed by the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC), is in the process of preparing the detailed project report (DPR) for the project.
Once the DPR is completed and submitted to KSIDC, it will be forwarded to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation for further review.