About 3,800 families may be shifted for Noida International airport phase II

GREATER NOIDA: A three-month-long social impact assessment (SIA) survey for the Noida International Airport phase II at Jewar has found that nearly 3,800 families in six villages are likely to be displaced for the project and many residents were “ready” to offer with their agricultural land for the “development of the region”.

A six-member team from the Gautam Buddha University, which conducted the survey from June 1 at Karoli Bangar, Kureb, Mundhera, Birampur, Dayanatpur and Ranhera villages of the district under the provisions of the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, submitted its report to the district administration on September 25.

“We have submitted our report to the district administration. Our comments and remarks are mentioned in the report and will be examined by the officials. The villagers are aware of the opportunities the (airport) project will bring in for the region and are ready to offer their land,” Vivek Kumar Mishra, the nodal officer of the team and head of political science and international relations department at the university, told TOI. The team, he said, completed its field visits by August 31 and started compiling the report thereafter.

Around 1,185 hectares (ha) of private land is to be acquired from the six villages as part of the second phase of construction. A total of 1363.45 ha will be handed over to the subsidiary of the Zurich AG, which is developing the Noida airport, for the second stage of the project. On Saturday, additional district magistrate (land acquisition), Balram Singh said, “The SIA report will be examined and its findings will be shared with the state government for further procedure. We will finalise the schedule for public hearing in a few days.” The public hearing, to compile the objections and suggestions of the affected villagers, is expected to commence from October 10.

According to sources, the survey team had met with some resistance at Karoli Bangar village, while a section of the surveyed population expressed apprehension about displacement.

“The families, which have shifted to the rehabilitation and resettlement township in Jewar Bangar from the six villages that have been acquired in the first stage, have not given very positive feedback. Though everyone is ready to give away their agricultural fields, convincing them to move out of the village to some other place will take some time,” an administrative official, who has studied the SIA report, said.

Karoli Bangar village, officials said, is situated extremely close to the Yamuna Expressway. “People here feel their village land will also command a hefty premium once this area gets developed,” an official said. The village is home to about 230 people of whom more than 50% has opposed the idea of shifting out.

The study to assess and sketch the socio-economic profile of the villagers affected by the project and the impact on their livelihoods was headed by professor Bandana Pandey of Gautam Budh University. The other members of the SIA team included faculty members RK Srivastava, Om Prakash, Amit Kumar Awasthi and Anand Pratap Singh.