Bengal Aerotropolis' Rs 10,000 crore airport city project at Andal in Bardhaman district, in which Singapore's Changi Airport holds a 26 per cent stake, facing fresh trouble with the West Bengal government on Tuesday saying that it will not acquire any further land for the project.
“We will not acquire further land for the Andal project. They have been asked to go ahead the project with the the land they were given,” state industry minister Partha Chatterjee said after meeting a delegation from Singapore’s Changi Airports International (CAI) led by its CEO Lim Liang Song.
West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) has acquired and handed over 1,818 acres of land to the BAPL for the project.
Earlier, BAPL decided to cut short the 2300 acre airport city project area by 144 acres which needed to be freshly acquired by the government, in keeping with the state government policy of not acquiring land for industrial projects. The developers also made changes accordingly in the masterplan.
However, it was hopeful of getting rest 338 acres as it was already under the process of acquisition and was negotiating with the state government for the same.
Though no comment was available from CAI official on Chatterjee's comment, Subrata Paul, chief executive officer of BAPL said, “We are trying to find a solution. It does not mean end of the project. We will again hold talks with government.”
However, Paul added that this will not affect the construction of airport. “This land was part of the township. The 650 acre needed for the airport is intact. We are confident of making the airport operational by third quarter of 2012,” he said.