Dhalbhumgarh airport project awaits central clearance

The Jharkhand government is awaiting central clearance to begin construction work for the Rs 100-crore Dhalbhumgarh airport project in East Singhbhum district, an official said on Tuesday.

In 2019, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Jharkhand Civil Aviation Department had signed an MoU to begin the project at an abandoned WWII airfield in East Singhbhum districts Ghatsila sub-division.

In the 1964 Survey Settlement, the land on which the Dhalbhumgarh airstrip existed was brought within the ambit of the forest department.

Divisional Forest Officer Abhishek Kumar said, "The forest department has already forwarded its recommendations to the Government of India for obtaining clearance for Stage I.

"The government clearance for Stage-II will proceed only after we receive a nod for Stage-I," he said.

Diversion of forest lands for non-forestry use, under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, is accorded in two stages.

They are Stage 1 or in principle approval which mandates conditions to be complied with for the issue of the subsequent Stage 11 or final approval.

Construction of boundary walls will begin after receiving the clearance for Stage-I, he said.

Since a major portion of the land for the airport belongs to the forest department, "Elephant movement is there, particularly in areas bordering West Bengal, but it is not an elephant corridor," the DFO said.

On Monday, a newspaper report said that an expert panel of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change has recommended to put the proposed airport on hold because it will affect animal corridors and increase the risk of man-animal conflict in Jharkhand-Bengal border region.

The proposed airport will come up along the NH-33, around 60 kilometres from Jamshedpur.

Former chief minister Raghubar Das had laid the foundation for the proposed airport on January 24, 2019 with a 1,745m x 30m runway as part of the first phase of the project, the official said.

The airport was being set up in two phases for which officials from Airport Authority of India (AAI) had visited Dhalbhumgarh in November, 2019.

On January 3, an AAI team attended a review meeting, chaired by East Singhbhum district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ravi Shankar Shukla, on the project.

Responding to a query on "uncertainty" about the project, the DC said, "I have no such information.

"We are waiting for clearance for Stage-1 and Stage-11 which will require a time between six months and nine months. Work will begin only after that."