No headway in building international airport

Uttarakhand govt has been unable to find adequate land for construction

The Uttarakhand government’s move to develop an international airport in the hill state has not made much headway due to unavailability of land.

Chief secretary Subhash Kumar had earlier asked top officials of the forest and revenue departments to identify land for building international airport. A survey is being carried out in this regard in different parts of the state.

However, the government has not found adequate non-forest land for the airport. The government is mainly banking upon Haridwar district where it thinks some forest land is available.

Nearly 150-200 hectares of land is needed for building the international airport. For this purpose, the government has already started an exercise to identify land between Laksar and Haridwar towns. “The government had seen land at Pathari area of Haridwar district. This is the forest land where a lot of clearances are needed,” said principal secretary civil aviation P C Sharma.

Sharma said Uttarakhand is a fit destination for tourism due to its vast and bountiful expanse that includes alpine meadows, wildlife parks and sanctuaries, breathtaking heritage and adventure sites. Similarly, the state has also emerged as the top destination for industrialists after big business houses like Tata, Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Nestle, HUL, Mahindra and Mahindra set up manufacturing units.

“We have taken an initiative for an international airport as we have only two small airports, Jollygrant and Pantnagar, where further expansion is very difficult,” said Sharma. When asked whether the new airport will be built on public private partnership mode, Sharma quipped: “It is too early to say anything now. Our first priority is to identify site for the airport.”

Currently, only small ATR planes are being operated in Jollygrant airport. The government is planning to build international airport keeping in view future needs. “If we plan today, it will take years to implement a new project,” said Sharma.

The chief secretary also directed the civil aviation department to consult officials of the Airport Authority of India for building the international airport.