Oct 2018 deadline for Alld civil airport terminal inauguration
ALLAHABAD: Eager to improve intra-state air-connectivity, the Yogi Adityanath government has set the deadline of October 2018 for inaugurating the proposed new Allahabad civil airport terminal.
It has also decided on December 2017 as the deadline for laying the foundation stone of the proposed Agra and Kanpur civil terminals.
The deadlines were decided upon during a recent review meeting chaired by the chief secretary in the state capital and attended by all top officials concerned.
In Allahabad, the land for the civil enclave has been selected near the Allahabad-Kaushambi border. As soon as the land is made available, the Airport Authority of India will begin the task of constructing the civil enclave.
Its inauguration by October 2018 has specially been planned keeping in view the once-in-sixyears Ardh Kumbh Mela set to be held at Allahabad from January 2019.
The proposed civil enclave will act like an airport terminal building with facilities for domestic flyers. The present airport has only Air India operating two direct flights for Delhi. Other players have now shown interest.
The minutes of the meeting which were finalised on September 14 say the new enclave is proposed to be constructed on an area of around 30.39 hectares as per a memorandum of understanding (MoU) inked by the state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). A sum of Rs 289 crore has already been released to the Allahabad district magistrate, a senior official of the UP civil aviation department said.
It was decided at the meeting that the DM will establish coordination with all sides concerned to make the required land available at the earliest while also reviewing the works carried out by the AAI in this regard.
As for the 7.7 hectare defence land required for the civil enclave, the DM and the AAI director have been empowered to coordinate the task, besides also holding talks with the Airlines who have shown interest in the first biddings for the service as invited by the state government. The civil enclave is to come up alongside the present airport, which is otherwise owned by the Indian Air Force.
During the meeting, December 2017 was decided as the deadline for laying the foundation stone of the Agra and Kanpur civil terminals. For the 55.29 hectare land for Agra civil terminal, the state government has provided Rs 153.67 crore to the district administration while Rs 82.24 crore have been released to Kanpur DM for the civil terminal that is to come up after acquiring of 50 acre land.
Other major decisions include asking the Varanasi DM to evaluate cost of the proposed expansion of Varanasi airport for which a need of an additional 350 acre land was estimated and requirement of Rs 6000 crore claimed earlier. The officials also decided that DMs of Sant Ravidas Nagar (Bhadoi), Jaunpur and Varanasi be asked to explore possibility and identify land parallel to existing airport for the proposed expansion
The Bareilly DM has also been asked to oversee construction of a boundary wall for the civil enclave airport at Bareilly for which 13.395 hectare land has already been acquired and handed over to the AAI. The state government had released Rs 60.89 crore for the land.
THE INAUGURATION BY OCTOBER 2018 HAS SPECIALLY BEEN PLANNED KEEPING IN VIEW THE ONCEINSIXYEARS ARDH KUMBH MELA SET TO BE HELD AT ALLAHABAD FROM JANUARY 2019.