Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia has asked the Assam government to make an ”in-principle application” in the prescribed form for the construction of the Greenfield Airport at Cachar as the land acquisition for its construction has been completed, BJP’s Silchar MP Rajdeep Roy said here.
The land acquisition phase at the Doloo Tea estate is over and in the next few days the state government will make an ‘in-principle application ‘ to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Roy told reporters on Thursday.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had written a letter to Scinida on June 12 regarding land acquisition for the airport following which the Union Minister replied on Thursday asking the state government to make the application as the land acquisition has been completed, Roy said,
Scindia further said that the aviation ministry will take the necessary steps for the construction of the Greenfield airport at Doloo once the formalities are completed.
Roy read out both the letters written by the Chief Minister and the Union Minister before the mediapersons.
Confusion prevailed over the Greenfield airport at Cachar as Scindia in reply to a letter written by Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev had said that no proposal has been received for its construction from the Assam government.
Scindia had written that the ministry had received ”no proposal to construct a Greenfield airport in Cachar District of Assam. However, if any such proposal from any Airport Developer or the State Government is received, the same would be considered as per the Greenfield airports Policy, 2008.”
Subsequently, the Chief Minister had claimed that land acquisition had to be completed by the state government before sending a formal proposal to the Centre for Greenfield airport development in that tract and pointed out that the Union Minister’s letter had been wrongly understood by some people.
The TMC MP had alleged that Silchar’s BJP MP had misled the members at an all-party meeting on the issue of Greenfield airport and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter as “this appears to be a case of large-scale corruption”.
Roy told mediapersons that once necessary formalities were completed, the Greenfield Airport will be built in Silchar within the next three years
He said that the development of Barak Valley should be the goal of all and when the government takes a noble initiative in the greater interest of the people of this valley, everyone should be vocal about the project and help in implementing it without creating obstacles.
”The opponents should know that the decision to build Greenfield Airport in Silchar was not taken overnight. In January 2020, an expert team from the Airport Authority of India visited three places in Cachar and the report was submitted about six months after the survey was conducted in Doloo, Khairil and Silcoorie tea garden areas”, he said.
The 22-page report, signed by five experts, states that the land in Doloo tea estate is suitable for the construction of Greenfield Airport.
A meeting was held in October 2021 and the Centre had requested the state government to undertake the acquisition of land by December 21st.
The state government had initiated the land acquisition process in Doloo but due to some unavoidable circumstances and other reasons, it could proceed full swing only from April this year, Roy said.
The report clearly states that the land of the proposed airport should be free from all obstructions and accordingly the state governmen…
