1,500 acres of Ghazni airport’s land has been usurped

GHAZNI CITY (Pajhwok): About 1,500 acres of land of the airport in southern Ghazni province has been usurped and homes, orchards and brick kilns have been built on the land, an official said on Thursday.

Ghazni airport manager Maulvi Safiullah Mehfooz told Pajhwok Afghan News the airport had 2,500 acres of land in the Unit area in front of Arzo village east of Ghazni city, but 1500 acres of its land had been usurped by local residents.

He feared the rest of the airport’s land would be grabbed if the central government did not take immediate action to wrest back the seized land.

According to Mehfooz, construction work on the Ghazni airport was launched in 2013 by the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation on 2,500 acres of land in Unit area by allocating 100 million afghanis.

He said at that time the airport’s land and runway were leveled at a cost of 22 million afghanis, but then work on the project was stopped for unknown reasons.

However, Mehfooz said the airport’s construction work had not been done fundamentally. He said the airport lacked taxiway and terminal and only a retaining wall and a 2000-meter long and 70-meter wide rough runway had been constructed.

He said foreign forces while leaving Ghazni dismantled the airport’s radar system and other facilities and now only the skeleton remained.

He urged the central government to wrest back the airport’s seized land before resuming its basic construction.

Mehfooz said if the airport project in Ghazni was completed and flights started, it would help resolve the problems of passengers in seven other provinces, Daikandi, Bamyan, Maidan Wardak, Paktia and Paktika.

He said tens of thousands of Ghazni residents worked in foreign countries and the airport’s construction will facilitate them. It would also expand businesses, promote tourism and would become a good source of revenue.

Abdul Manan Ikram, head of the commission tasked with preventing state land grabbing in Ghazni, told Pajhwok they prevented fresh incidents of land grabbing and had indentified lands grabbed in the past and had sent information to the central government in this regard for taking action.

Ghazni governor Maulvi Mohammad Ishaq Akhundzada corroborated Ikram’s account and said they had taken concrete steps to reclaim usurped government land.

“We are preparing the lists of powerful individuals, politicians and lawmakers of the previous regime and officials who have usurped state land and the lists are being sent to the central government for a decision.”

Local officials say more than 100,000 acres of state land has been grabbed in Ghazni City and districts.

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