 "Mumbai international airport Wikipedia")
Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) have brought down the curtains on their three-year-old airport slum rehabilitation dispute. The two sides settled their dispute on the directions of a three-member arbitration tribunal and have unconditionally withdrawn all claims against each other.
Mumbai’s airport slum rehabilitation has remained stuck for five years and this could pave the way for MIAL to select a new developer for the project. Of the airport's 1,981.85 acres, about 308.95 acres have been encroached upon in Kurla, Sahar, Santacruz, Agripada, Gaodevi and Kalina.
On Monday, the GVK group, which owns MIAL, and HDIL informed the stock exchanges that they had signed an agreement on September 8 to withdraw their claims in an arbitration proceeding.
MIAL terminated its contract with HDIL in February 2013 alleging breach of contract. HDIL moved court seeking relief but its appeals were rejected by the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court. An arbitration tribunal was constituted that “urged both parties to seriously attempt a settlement”.
The Maharashtra government is now exploring ways to change development control rules to allow speedier resettlement of 85,000 slum-dwellers on an area adjacent to the airport. Slum-dwellers will be provided free houses and the developer will be allowed to commercially develop some portion of the land.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had last month announced a survey was being conducted of the airport slums. The survey is expected to be completed in October and a plan will be finalised after that.
