* LAND FOR AIRPORTS DEVELOPMENT
NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has sought personal intervention of the Chief Ministers of five states, including that of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, in expediting the development of airports.
Scindia has written to the chief ministers of Assam and Andhra Pradesh requesting their intervention to instruct the officers concerned to initiate action for expediting various matters like land allocation, deposition of funds with Regional Air Connectivity Fund Trust (RACFT), VGF support for International UDAN operations etc., for strengthening of aviation infrastructure in the respective states.
Scindia has written to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma drawing his attention to the matter of land requirements of 78.5 acres at Dibrugarh Airport, 109 acres at Lilabari Airport, 116,5 acres at Silchar Airport and 50 acres at Jorhat Airport. He mentioned that the land required at Dibrugarh Airport will be utilized for future expansion of the airport and necessary runway strip, while that at Lilabari Airport will be used for construction of Isolation bay, necessary runway strip and development of a new Aviation Manpower Training Institute. The land requested at Silchar Airport will be used to develop city-side infrastructure and land at Jorhat Airport will be used for the development of a New Civil enclave. Out of the total projected land, only 8.5 acres of land has been handed over at Dibrugarh Airport, and the rest of the land parcels are yet to be handed over by the State Government.
Similarly, Scindia has written to the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh seeking his intervention in land acquisition for various aviation sector projects which includes land requirements of 5.5 acres for installation of Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) and Doppler Very High-Frequency Omni Range (DVOR) protection area and construction of Residential Colony for airport staff at Tezu Airport. Another 70 acres at Dirang, 34.3 acres at Daporijo, 2.3 acres at Passighat, 7 acres at Along and 10.6 acres at Ziro.
He said that the State Government needs to immediately operationalize heliports at Daparizo, Itanagar, Tuting, Walong, Yinghiong and Ziro, for which a budget of Rs. 8.44 crore per heliport has already been allocated by this Ministry under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik). (PIB)
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