The government on Monday said that it has sought an NOC (no objection certificate) from the Ministry of Defence for construction of an airport at Jewar in the Gautam Budh Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh, adjoining national capital city Delhi.
According to Minister of State (MoS) for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma, the push for developing airports in small towns was a natural "follow up" to the regional air connectivity scheme (RCS).
He spoke after a review meeting between the officials from the civil aviation ministry and the Uttar Pradesh government on development of airports in the state.
The government on last Friday unveiled the draft regional air connectivity scheme policy document with the intent to provide air connectivity to unserved and remote regions.
At that time the minister said that the new RCS policy, when implemented, might cause congestion at the IGI Airport, for which there was a need to develop another airport in the National Capital Region.
Currently, the ministry has two proposals for development of an additional airport in the NCR -- Jewar in Uttar Pradesh and Bhiwadi in Rajasthan.
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The minister announced the formation of a committee of senior ministry and state government officials, which has been tasked to study the feasibility of development of "no frills" airports in Meerut, Faizabad and Moradabad.
Besides, the minister said, a major effort has been undertaken to operationalise numerous airports in Uttar Pradesh.
The minister also revealed that Rs 400 crore assistance will be provided by the central government for development of airports at Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur and Bareilly.
He pointed out that an airport in Kushinagar will also be developed, for which the state government has provided Rs 200 crore.
--IANS
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