< the first phase 51,27869 sq mts from five villages of Chandel, Casarvarnem, Mopa, Varkhand and Amberem land had been acquired and as private land and 3,26,980 sq mts is government land.....In the second phase, additional land of 23,71,621 sq mts for the construction of the airport is proposed to be acquired...In the third phase an area of 8,84,812 sq mts for approach road to the new international airport had been proposed to be acquired.>
------------- Leaving aside the sloppiness about private and government land in the opening lines, it is necessary to convert the seemingly astronomical areas into more meaningful units. The first phase acquisition then works out to 1267 acres approximately. Second phase area is about 586 acres and third phase entails 219 acres. Note that the 'total' area involved is only about 2000 acres. This is less than half the sprawling 4500 acre airport originally proposed when Mopa was identified nearly ten years ago. And the first phase area of 1300 acres already in the bag is about the same as the already operational Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL). BIAL and HIAL may however be around 4500 acres.
