Noida Aiport: Villagers seek increased compensation for ph 2 land acquisition

Noida: Jewar MLA Dhirendra Singh on Wednesday wrote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, letting him know about the demands of the farmers and villagers whose land is to be acquired for the second phase development of the Noida International Airport.

The BJP legislator wrote a letter to the CM after a meeting with the affected villagers and local government officials concerned about the upcoming Greenfield airport in his constituency in Gautam Buddh Nagar district of the western UP.

Meerut Divisional Commissioner Surendra Singh, Gautam Buddh Nagar DM Suhas L Yathiraj, Noida International Airport Limited (NIAL) chairman Arun Vir Singh, Airport project's nodal officer Shailendra Bhatia, among others, were part of the meeting.

While work for the first phase of the Noida International Airport is still going on, the process for the acquisition of land for its second phase is also underway as per norms of the Right to fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013'.

Officials said that the state government had in March 2021 approved a proposal for acquisition of 1,365 hectares of land for the second phase development of the airport and had approved a budget of Rs 2,890 crore for its construction, but so far only around 30 per cent villagers have given their consent for the acquisition.

According to the law, consent of over 70 per cent villagers is needed for the land acquisition, the officials added.

In his letter to Adityanath, the Jewar MLA apprised him of Wednesday's meeting and shared with him the list of demands of the residents of villages Ranhera, Kuraib, Nangla Jahanu, Birampur, Mundrah etc whose land is to be acquired. The villagers have demanded that the monetary compensation be made Rs 5,600 per sq metre instead of Rs 2,300 per sq metre as was given to beneficiaries of phase one.