798 acres of AAI land under encroachment: Govt

Slum dwellers and other inhabitants have encroached 798 acres of land belonging to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the government said on Thursday.

State-owned AAI, which manages 126 airports apart from carrying out other duties, possesses around 55,800 acres of land across the country.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha informed the Lok Sabha that there is no surplus land available with the AAI.

"Out of the overall land belonging to the AAI in the country, around 1.4 per cent, which is approximately 798 acres of land area is under encroachment by slum dwellers and other inhabitants," he said in a written reply.

Sinha said that majority of land area under encroachment is around Mumbai and Juhu airports, and is inhabited by slum dwellers.

"Around 127 acres of land area at Bhopal airport and 119.82 acres of land area at Hyderabad airport is also under encroachment," the minister noted. He also added that the AAI has undertaken all efforts in active manner to coordinate with state governments concerned to remove such encroachments.

"The process of rehabilitation of illegal occupants is a subject matter of the concerned state government and the role of the AAI and other private operators is limited to assistance and persuasion," he said.