The Navi Mumbai international airport project seems to be running into one obstacle after the other, this time with the clearance from the forest department hitting a roadblock just when it was on the verge of approval.
The department, which was supposed to receive 250 hectares land in compensation of the same amount of land it has given for the project has pointed out that 56 hectares, is forest land itself, which therefore cannot be accepted. Moreover, the alternative land it has suggested has run into opposition from the villagers. While the rejected forest land is located is located at Pen and Karjat tehsils, the opposed village land is at Khawli village in Sudhagad tehsil. Consequently, no forest clearance can be received until all the compensatory land is formally handed over to the forest department. The authority in charge of transferring such land to the forest department is the district collector.
In a letter dated February 13 this year to Raigad district collector H.K. Jawale, the forest department pointed out that the 56 hectares cannot be accepted as its own charts and survey maps show it is the landowner.
“According to routine government procedure, the collector’s office first shows a list of lands to the available with the revenue department to the party concerned, and after selection, sends a proposal to the state government for officiating the transfer,” explained a forest department official requesting anonymity.
While the entire procedure began in January last year, the land in question was selected by the forest department in July after which the collector sent a proposal to the state government for its approval the same month. This therefore raises the question of the forest department’s late realisation of the land’s title, six month’s after it itself selected the land.
In the same letter, the department also suggested land at Khawli village in Sudhagad tehsil, which the villagers later opposed in a letter to the forest officials on April 13.