AAI owns 55,800 acres of land: Civil Aviation Minister

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) owns around 55,800 acres of land across the country out of which 798 acres under encroachment, Minister of Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha informed Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The use of land under AAI is restricted to discharge its functions related to airports but the National Aviation Policy 2016 envisages to unlock the potential of land by liberalising the end-use restrictions for existing and future airports, he said.

"AAI possess approximately 55,800 acres of land all over India, which is under use for safe and secure airport operations and there is no surplus land," Sinha said in a written reply.

Out of the overall land belonging to AAI, Sinha around 1.43% or 798.47 acres is under encroachment by "slum dwellers and other habitants".

The majority of the land area under encroachment is around Mumbai and Juhu airports, which are inhabited by slum dwellers. The land under encroachment here is 358.15 acres. Other major encroachments are in Bhopal -- 127.37 acres -- and Hyderabad 119.82 acres.

The Mumbai International Airport Ltd has entered into an agreement with the Government of Maharashtra in order to remove the encroachment from airport land in coordination with AAI.

In the case of Bhopal airport, Madhya Pradesh government has agreed to exchange 96 acres of land with AA and provide an alternate site for the remaining land area.

"The process of rehabilitation of illegal occupants is a subject matter of concerned state governments and the role of AAI and other private operators is limited to assistance and persuasion. Nonetheless, AAI has undertaken all efforts in an active manner to coordinate with the concerned state governments to remove such encroachments," Sinha said.