June 16, 2007
Goandevi, one of the oldest slums surrounding Mumbai airport is making headlines these days and all for the wrong reasons. The slum dwellers and the airport authority are locked in a tussle over the 276 acres of airport land that the former have been squatting on for around 40 years. It houses some 4 lakh people, mostly settlers from other states.
The airport authorities seem to have woken up from its slumber and realized now that this piece of land which was made habitable by the slum dwellers is a part of the airport and they have rights over it. The State government has also been pushing forward the case of the AAI who claims that they need the land for modernizing the airport. The project to "clean up" and modernize the airport is being actuated by the AAI-GVK SA joint venture Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL),
The issue is not the eviction of these thousands of people to suburbs with no civic amenities and not also of the rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) package, but of the reason why the people are now being served notices for eviction.
The initial cause shown by MIAL was the need of a third runway for the airport, to which even the slum dwellers have no objection to if given a good R&R package. But since the construction of a third runway is not feasible due to technical reasons, it is alleged that the airport authorities now want to lease out the space for hotels, shopping malls, golf course and technology parks; something that is not palatable for the slum dwellers. The tough stand taken by the group of slum dwellers against what they think is an attempt by MIAL to reap up huge profits from the commercially viable real estate, has resulted in a stalemate as of now.
In response to MIAL’s appeal, the Supreme Court in April this year gave directions to the State government to extend the cut-off date for legalizing slums from its current January 1, 1995. The State government has since extended the date to 2000. The Supreme Court doesn’t usually intervene in property litigations but its involvement itself speaks of the magnitude of the property dispute.
As per the property laws in India, the AAI has a case against the slum dwellers as the property is owned by the airport and they have full rights on it, but it will not be possible for them to evict the residents without giving them an apt alternative settlement. Coming back to the bone of contention, if the AAI goes ahead to lease out airport premises to a private company as alleged, it would violate its own law, the amended AAI ACT 2003 which bars letting out for commercial reasons. MIAL however refutes such allegations and has categorically stated that the land is required for bettering the airport infrastructure under the modernization project.
There seems to be no resolution to this standoff unless the government finds a suitable resettlement option for the slum dwellers.