Yogi wants Jewar project fast-tracked
LUCKNOW: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has asked officers associated with implementation of the Noida Greenfield International Airport project at Jewar in Greater Noida to expedite work on acquisition of land for it, said a senior official who did not wish to be named.
“He has asked that the necessary clearance of the state cabinet is sought soon to send the draft bid document to the Centre for approval (by December 15),” the officer said.
The move comes as the Uttar Pradesh government has begun setting timelines to take the project forward and gain some political mileage, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, people familiar with the matter said.
The chief minister considers the Jewar project an important venture to showcase his government’s achievements, they added. Adityanath reviewed implementation of the project at a high level meeting on Tuesday evening. He has already met delegations of farmers in Lucknow to
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We have already got the necessary clearance from the union civil aviation ministry, the union home ministry and the defence ministry for the project OFFICIAL
know about their problems and convince them about giving land for the project.
The chief minister said farmers were cooperating completely with his government in getting land for the project.
The state government made a provision of Rs 800 crore for the Jewar airport project in its supplementary budget to expedite the acquisition of land and get its possession for the project.
The state assembly passed the supplementary budget in August.
“We have already got the necessary clearance from the union civil aviation ministry, the union home ministry and the defence ministry for the project,” an officer said. Major opposition parties are, however, not amused and say the CM’s move to expedite work ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections will make no difference.
“Chief minister Yogi Adityanath did not do any concrete work in the past 20 months. He now wants to accelerate the pace of work as if planes will begin landing at Jewar. We do not think anybody will take his moves seriously now,” said Samajwadi Party spokesman and former minister Rajendra Chaudhary.
Dhirendra Singh, the BJP MLA from Jewar, countered the SP’s observations and said: “The SP government had tried to shift the airport project out of Jewar. The state government has notified the acquisition of 1239.1416 hectare land out of nearly 1400 hectare required for the project. Two months will be needed to get objections from the farmers. The remaining land is available with government departments. We are making efforts to persuade the farmers to handover possession of land at the earliest and bring the project to the ground by laying the foundation before 2019 Lok Sabha elections,” said Singh.
The state government is reviewing preparations for holding a pre-bid conference and floating the international bid to select the developer for the project, officials said. Gautam Buddha Nagar district magistrate BN Singh, who has been asked to ensure possession of land for the project, was not available for comment.
Another senior officer said, “The state government has issued the necessary notification under provisions of Section 11 (1) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 on October 30, 2018 for acquisition of 1239.1416 hectare land. We hope to get possession of 70 to 80% of land in the coming weeks. This will be sufficient to move ahead with implementation of the project.
The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority has appointed Price Waterhouse Cooper as the consultant for preparing the draft bid document, manage the pre-bid conference and complete formalities to float the bid.”