An 18-month to two-year delay is expected in the Mumbai airport slum rehabilitation programme to find alternative land to relocate and resettle approximately 80,000 slum-dwellers, who have encroached on 276 acres of airport land.

The delay will seriously impact the expansion and modernisation of the country's second-busiest airport.

The GVK-led consortium, which is modernising the airport, had appointed Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd to work out a slum resettlement programme to identify alternative land and relocate people in four phases.

Once free, this airport land was to be used to augment the runway system and, therefore, increase the airport's ability to handle more passengers.

The first phase of the slum resettlement was to be completed in 18 months with a deadline of April 2009 and the second phase by October 2009. The target date for the final phase was October 2011.

But HDIL's managing director, Sarang Wadhawan, told Business Standard:  "It will be at least two-and-a-half years before the first slum-dweller is shifted."

What this means is that the relocation of slum dwellers even of the first phase can only begin only in late 2010.

The delay is chiefly because HDIL is keen to take all stakeholders, especially the local administration, on board its plans. The company has asked for time to make a presentation on the programme.

"It is important to take the corporators, councillors and NGOs into confidence," said Wadhawan. The slum rehab policy demands that at least 70 per cent of the affected dwellers give the developer consent to move.

The survey work to identify the exact number of slum -dwellers is yet to begin but the company said it had already identified the land for slum resettlement from its land reserves. It has earmarked 147.5 acres, nearly 6 per cent of its vast land bank in the city, for the project.

Under regulations, the relocation has to take place around the airport and each family, irrespective of size, is to be given a dwelling of 225 sq foot.

Industry sources estimate that in return for the land surrendered and the tenements constructed for the slum-dwellers, HDIL will get Transferable Development Rights over an area that will approximately be 3.5 times the area surrendered.

These TDRs could be either sold by HDIL or used to enhance the floor space index of its current projects.

The delay will compound the problem of congestion at the airport. The airport reports 635 air traffic movements a day and all carriers report an average circling time of 45 minutes.

The freed-up land was expected to help clear the runways faster with the construction of four parallel taxiways (against one now) and 11 rapid exit taxiways (currently two).

Between April and December 2007, the airport handled 25.2 million passengers. The number is likely to go up to 26 million passengers for the full year by March 2008.

With a projected annual growth rate of 18 to 19 per cent over the next four years, Mumbai airport will receive 50 million passengers by 2012.

A Mumbai International Airport Ltd spokesperson said the land to be freed up is of critical value.

Some of the land is needed to relocate facilities like the air traffic control tower, the line and maintenance facilities of several airlines and hangars that need to shift to accommodate the new exitways. Part of the new integrated terminal is also located on the area occupied by slum-dwellers.

According to HDIL, of the 276 acres, 180 acres would be used for airport development and 96 acres for commercial development.