Slums adjoining airport to be razed

mumbai: over 2,000 hutments touching the walls between the international and the domestic airports will be pulled down shortly as part of the nation-wide security alert after the terrorist strike on september 11 in america. those hutments, which were constructed before january 1995 and those eligible for state protection, will be provided with alternate accommodation before the demolition exercise begins.the entire cost of rehablitiation of these slum dwellers will have to be borne by the union government as the slums had come up on land belonging to the airport authority of india (aai). chief minister vilasrao deshmukh made this clear to the central government officials who participated in a meeting held on monday at sahyadri, the state guest house, to discuss the disaster management plan of the state government. officials of the state and the centre took a review of the state of preparedness and have suggested measures for revamping the security. as part of the preventive measures the slum settlements bordering the naval establishments will also be razed. ``the government will begin its operation to demolish the hutments in the close preiphary of the two airports very soon. in the second phase the authorities will concentrate on those huts which have raised the structure beyond the permissible limit. the loft or the new floor added to the original ground floor hutment will be pulled down,'' a senior bureaucrat told this newspaper on monday. it is estimated that around 50-100 hutments close to the airport have raised their structure. the state government has also decided to beef-up the security measures in important locations around the city including the barc, the tifr and mbpt among others. the protracted meeting was attended by chief secretary v. ranganathan, home secretary asoke basak, state police chief subhash malhotra, municipal commissioner karun srivastav, police commissioner m.n. singh, barc chief anil kakodkar and officials of the navy, coast guard, aai and civil defence. mr deshmukh also asked the officials to strengthen the security network around the water pipeline installations. officials were also instructed by the cm to launch an awareness campaign among the people to inform them on the do's and don't's to combat any unforeseen untoward situation. mr deshmukh said the poster campaign should be taken up on a large scale to educate the people.