Shimla: The district administration needs about Rs 2700 crore in the month of February for the expansion of Gaggal Airport in Kangra district. The R&R plan is almost in the final stage to start land acquisition and accordingly there will be two phases of payment of this cost.
First Rs 2200 crore will be distributed to the affected people and according to inflation index about Rs 560 crore more will be spent. The district administration has also given a presentation on these figures during the visit of Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu to Dharamshala.
The work of re-creating the Techno-Economic Feasibility Report prepared earlier by WAPCOS has also started and five members of the agency along with tourism officials and Airport Authority of India have again visited Kangra Airport.
The visit took place between December 11 and 13 and now a revised DPR is being prepared. Earlier, WAPCOS had given a report of cost of Rs 10996 crore to build the airport, which was rejected by the Tourism Department.
Help is also being taken from IIT Roorkee. After re-estimating the final cost, the case will be sent to the Central Government.
Five lakhs to every adult member of the family
Now the new thing is that the definition of family has been redefined for Kangra Airport. Under this, for giving this compensation, every adult member of the family will be considered as a separate family and apart from the land acquisition cost, such members will get a separate annuity of Rs 5 lakh per member.
On the other hand, the state government has sent clarification in this regard to the district administration. This amount is being included in the R&R plan.
Work will be done in two phases
In this project, the runway length is to be increased from the existing 1376 meters to 3010 meters in two phases. In the first phase this length will go up to 1900 meters and then in the second phase it will cover a distance of three kilometers. The Chief Minister had ordered to complete the land acquisition process for both phases in one phase.
The state government will pay for private land
147-75-87 hectares of land has been identified. It has 122-66-23 hectares of private land, the cost of which will have to be paid by the state government. After the meeting held in Dharamshala, the Chief Minister has asked to speed up this process.
However, the State Finance Secretary faces the challenge of making this amount available in February. On one hand, the state government is looking at the possibilities of bringing a private partner, while on the other hand, the budget of the next financial year can also be used for this airport.
