‘Slums around Mumbai airport to be cleared in three years’

MUMBAI - An eyesore that greets air travelers - around 80,000 slums in the vicinity of the Mumbai airport - will be cleared and the slumdwellers rehabilitated within three years, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said here Friday.

The slums, which have proved to be an obstacle in the expansion of the airport facilities, including extending the main runway, will be removed in a time-bound manner, he added.

Of the 80,000 hutment dwellers, nearly 10 percent, or 8,000 families will be rehabilitated by the Diwali festival in November in tenements constructed by the government in Kurla in northeast Mumbai, Chavan said, while presiding over a meeting of top officials to discuss the issue.

“We shall even consider setting up a separate authority to oversee the entire rehabilitation project to clear the airport vicinity and undertake a quarterly review of the progress,” Chavan added.

He pointed out that keeping in view Mumbai’s importance as the country’s financial centre, it was imperative to clear the slums, improve the approach roads and extend the main runway of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

He said that all the slums that had come up prior to Jan 1, 2000, will be eligible for the rehabilitation project.

A survey to detect those who are eligible or not will soon be undertaken by the concerned agencies, Chavan said.

Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, Mumbai suburbs guardian minister Naseem Khan, Municipal Commissioner S. Kshatriya, Mumbai Suburban District Collector Nirmalkumar Deshmukh, Slum Rehabilitation Authority CEO S.S. Zende, officials from the Mumbai Interantional Airport Ltd and Mumbai Congress chief Kripa Shankar Singh were among those who attended the meeting.