West Bengal begins land acquisition for country's first aerotropolis

The first airport city project in the country will come up near Durgapur in West Bengal by 2011 as the process of acquiring 2,363 acres of land has begun with the issuance of a notification to this effect recently.

The aerotropolis, or an airport city, proposed to come up in the Andal-Faridpur block of Bardhaman district will have an airport and related infrastructure spread over 650 acres, an IT and industrial park on about 550 acres, a housing project on 650 acres and a hospital, schools, community shopping areas and other structures on another 450 acres.

Despite the stiff resistance to land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram affecting industrial projects in the state, the process of land acquisition for the aerotropolis was initiated by the Bengal government by issuing a notification a few weeks ago.

“The notification has been issued... There is no resistance from the people as their dependence on land and agriculture is far less than in other parts of the state. Most of the land here is barren,” Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) Director Raj Shekhar Agrawal said here.

While the total project cost would be about Rs 10,000 crore, BAPL and its partners would be putting in about Rs 600 crore in the first phase in which the airport and related infrastructure would be developed by 2011, he said.

The aerotropolis would be constructed by BAPL, which has entered into a technical services agreement with Singapore’s premier Changi Airports International.

The state government has also given the green signal to West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) to pick up a stake in BAPL, Agrawal said.

BAPL has appointed IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation as its project development adviser and L&T Ramboll Consulting Engineers Ltd as technical consultants for the airport project.

Maintaining that WBIDC would purchase the land identified for the project, he said it would acquire the entire land in six months and transfer it to BAPL on lease for 99 years.

To questions on rehabilitation of those who sell off their land, Agrawal said a major package, “far better than any other proposed so far”, had already been worked out.

Besides employment to locals, vocational training and housing schemes for them, there would also be “land for land as well as payment of annuity, that is a fixed amount on an annual basis, to them”.

Agrawal said some land plots inside the 2,363-acre project area would be given to those eligible.

“We have had several rounds of discussion with the local people, most of whom either have jobs or small businesses. Most of them do not till the land, a vast part of which is not arable,” the BAPL Director said, adding “we are creating a stake in the project for the land owners”.

Talks on land acquisition in the area near Durgapur were carried out even during the peak of Nandigram and Singur violence and there was “no opposition”, he said.

The only problem which has now cropped up regarding acquisition of land is that the Eastern Coalfields Ltd have filed an objection with the local authorities saying there were coal deposits in the area, Agrawal said.

This issue has to be resolved by the Centre and the state government, he said, adding that currently there were no plans for coal projects in the area.

Agrawal expressed hope that when the project comes up, it would turn Durgapur into an alternate urban financial centre in West Bengal vis-a-vis Kolkata, like Pune in Maharashtra.