MIAL scans pvt land to shift airport slums

Mumbai: The Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the consortium which will carry out modernisation and upgradation of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, is busy scouting for private land to re-house the the 85,000-odd illegal hutments that pockmark the periphery of the airport.
According to sources, MIAL will soon shop for approximately 100 acres of land in neighbouring localities for resettlement.
Newsline has learnt that swathes of private land have already been identified and earmarked for purchase in areas like Andheri, Kurla, and Kanjurmarg. Additionally, MIAL is not ruling out the option of resettling a percentage of the squatters on a 55-acre Airports Authority of India plot in Dahisar.
When asked, an MIAL spokesperson termed the possibility of in situ rehabilitation—demanded by some slum dwellers—as ‘‘a little difficult’’.
10/10/06 Lekha Agarwal/Mumbai Newsline

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