Uttarakhand to get international airport

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With Uttarakhand emerging as a hot tourist and industrial destination, the state government on Thursday said it is planning to develop an international airport.

At a high-level meeting here, chief secretary Subhash Kumar asked top officials of the forest and revenue departments to identify land for building an international airport. A survey will also be carried out in this regard in different parts of the state.

However, the government is mainly banking upon Haridwar district where it thinks sufficient land is available. Nearly 150-200 hectares of land is needed for building the international airport.

For this purpose, the government has already started an exercise to identify land between Laksar and Haridwar towns. “The government had seen land at Pathari area of Haridwar district. But the proposal was rejected due to excessive trees in the area,” Kumar said.

Kumar said Uttarakhand is a fit destination for tourism due to its vast and bountiful expanse that include alpine meadows, wildlife parks and sanctuaries, breathtaking heritage and adventure sites. Similarly, the state has also emerged as a top destination for industrialists after big business houses like Tatas, Hero, Bajaj, Nestle, HUL and Mahindra and Mahindra set up manufacturing units there.

“We have started initiative for an international airport as we have only two small airports — Jollygrant and Pantnagar, where further expansion is very difficult,” said principal secretary civil aviation P C Sharma. When asked whether the new airport will be built on PPP mode, he said, “It is too early to say anything now. Our first priority is to identify land.”

Currently, only small ATR planes are being operated in Jollygrant airport. The government is planning to build international airport keeping in view future needs. “If we plan today, it will take years to implement a new project,” Sharma said.

The chief secretary also directed the civil aviation department to consult officials of the Airport Authority of India for building the proposed international airport.

BS

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