Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport, also known as Sonegaon Airport, is the airport located in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It handles over a million passengers, 14,500 aircraft movements and handles 9,000 tons of cargo per year. Looking at the increasing passenger and economic prospect of the region, an expansion plan on a total area of about 1,295 hectares was proposed [1] in 2005 by the Government of Maharashtra. It is part of Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN), as a major international passenger and cargo hub.

A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been developed along with the airport.

The Project is implemented by Mihan India Ltd (MIL), a newly formed joint venture entity of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MDAC). Under MIHAN, MADC has a plan to acquire about of 4,354 hectares of land. Of the total about 1,278 hectares are proposed for the airport and 2,086 for an SEZ. The idea is to create a new twin city along with Nagpur like other twin cities in India. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 2,581 crore [1]. The project is financed by Indian banks with a total loan amount of Rs7bn, and an investment from the state government and the Airports Authority of India. [4] A total of 14 villages were acquired for the project affecting nearly 50,000 people [2]. The area is rich and prosperous belt famous for its oranges production. Most of the land is irrigated and people in the villages grow wheat, soyabean and cotton and also cultivate green vegetables for the urban market [1]. The Union Cabinet had approved the multimodal international air cargo hub, but thousands of farmers in the area against this project. Villagers alleged that the land for the proposed airport has been forcefully acquired and boundary wall has been erected cutting the areas from the rest of the villages.

Although, MIHAN and MIL declared in 2008 that farmers would be suitably rehabilitated with infrastructure and facilities in the neighboring villages, the promises had not been fulfilled [3].

The people of villages made representations to the various Maharashtra governments’ departments. As their demands are not heard, they launched peaceful protests, including hunger strikes. They also adopted a unique form of protest: in 2007 all adult male shaved their heads and later even about 90 women also shaved their head. This is an extraordinary move signifying the distress of widowhood in a traditional Hindu family [1].

Sonegaon Airport handles over a million passengers, 14,500 aircraft movements and handles 9,000 tons of cargo per year. Looking at the increasing passenger and economic prospect of the region, an expansion plan on a total area of about 1,295 hectares was proposed [1]. It is part of Multi-modal International Hub Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN). A Special Economic Zone (SEZ) has been developed along with the airport. The project is being executed by Mihan India Ltd (MIL), a joint venture of Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MDAC) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) [1, 4]