Bellary airport land: Karnataka HC quashes acquisition notification

The high court on Wednesday quashed the land notifications of 250 acres acquired for the proposed airport in Bellary. Justice S Abdul Nazeer quashed the acquisition notification dated May 23, 2009, but gave the liberty to the special land acquisition officer to hear the petitioner again and proceed with the matter.

Kurubara Picchappanavara Lingappa and 77 others, in their petition, had contended that at the instance of the mining lobby, over 900 acres of land was notified for acquisition for the proposed greenfield airport in Bellary. Of the 900 acres, 250 acres belonged to the petitioners.

They challenged the acquisition on grounds that two airports already exist in Bellary —a civilian airport at the cantonment and another owned by a steelmaker on the city outskirts. The passenger occupancy rate had never crossed 30 and the average is 15-20. The district is almost equidistant from Bangalore and Hyderabad. Hence, there is no need for a third airport at Bellary, they said. The petitioners pointed out that Deccan Airways used to operate flights from Bellary to Bangalore and Goa, but stopped operations more than a year ago due to low occupancy. Since then, there have been no regular flights from the two airports.

Mining companies occasionally make use these airports for their helicopters.

They also contended the land for the proposed airport fell within the 6,000 acres of land being irrigated under the right bank high-level canal of the Thungabhadra project in Sirivara Chaganur and Thegginabudhihalu villages. Earlier, a suit was filed regarding this matter at the second additional civil judges at Bellary, but it was dismissed on April 24, 2010, as not maintainable.

The Reddy brothers had acquired land in the surrounding areas of Kappagal and Sirvara and acquired 1,200 acres, which was double the land required to build an airport. Three areas were selected to acquire land —Siruguppa Road, Kappagal and Sirvara. The Reddy brothers opted for Kappagal and Sirvara, claming it was a dry land.  However, it was an agricultural land and farmers were growing two crops a year.