Here is a double delight for the city. The expansion of major projects and the rehabilitation of the affected, which has been stuck for want of land, are all set to roll on. Even better, the pressures of consequent development will in no way disturb the fragile civic equilibrium of the city.This is how the Government hopes to achieve the development coup: Set apart large chunks of land within the 100 acres belonging to the Muttathara sewage farm for the further development of the Airports Authority of India and Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology and for the rehabilitation of evictees of various projects along the unused stretches at the outskirts.The recommendations in this regard, which were made by the district administration and vetted by a high-level committee led by the Chief Secretary and comprising of Additional Chief Secretary (Revenue) and Finance Secretary, are before the Cabinet for approval. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to be allotted 6.21 acres from the sewage farm, which would be left vacant once the sewage treatment plant comes up. The AAI plans to set up an advanced runway signal lighting system on the land and using it as runway end safety area (RESA) of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. The RESA is the formal means to limit the consequences when an aircraft overruns the end of a runway during a landing or a rejected takeoff or excursion from the runway.“The present strip of land ahead of the runway end is only 540 metres, but we need at least 900 metres for the signal lighting system, according to the guidelines. The present lighting system we have is a truncated version,” a senior airport official told City Express. Another five acres of land has also been sought by the airport for the installation of a modern radar, which is also under consideration. The Airport Director had apprised the State about the dangers of vehicles plying over the bridge near the airport. The committee has also proposed to earmark 15 acres for rehabilitation of evictees from airport area, five acres for the evictees of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, and 25 acres for Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology. Three set of proposals have been submitted, in which the first one recommends that the existing Ponnara bridge near the airport is to be demolished to build a new road along the eastern side of the Parvathy Puthanar. It also says that the second bridge, which is in a dilapidated condition, has to be reconstructed to suit two-way traffic for heavy vehicles, and the road has to be constructed along the border of the land to be given to AAI. The second proposal says that the Ponnara bridge should be maintained restricting it to cars, autorickshaws and two-wheelers. The third proposal recommends that the land to be given to the RGCB should be provided in such a way that the rehabilitated people do not encroach further into the vacant land. The proposals also specify that the residential plots should not be given close to the airport as there are chances of increasing bird hits as waste will be thrown all over the place.
Comments
0 comment