Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL) has decided to cut short the 2300 acres airport city project area at Andal 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 are making changes accordingly in the masterplan of the Rs 10,000-crore project in the industrial belt of Asansol-Durgapur region of West Bengal.
“The West Bengal government has taken a position that no further acquisition will be done. Now, 144 acres needs to be freshly acquired by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) for the project. State government does not want to do that and we have also decided to do away with the land,” Subrata Paul, chief executive officer of BAPL said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee whose anti-land acquisition movement in Singur and Nandigram had changed the course of politics in the state and helped her party, has made it clear that her government will not acquire land for industry.
So far, the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) has acquired and handed over 1,818 acres of land to the BAPL for the project. Though the proposed 2,300 acres project area is now reduced by 144 acres, the developers are expecting to get remaining 338 acres in another couple of months as this land is already under the process of acquisition.
“Currently we have about 1818 acres. The problem was with 144 acres which needed to be freshly acquired. But, we will be getting remaining land of about 338 acres in another two three months as this is already under various process of acquisition. There is some defence land also. WBIDC is talking with the defence authorities for that,” Paul said.
Unavailability of 144 acres has prompted BAPL to review its project plan.“This will affect project, but we will look and see how we can manage. We have to review it, the master plan has to be seen for that. We will see how the whole thing can be relooked at,” he said.
However, Paul added that this will not affect the construction of airport. “This 144 acres was part of the township. The 650 acre needed for the airport is intact. We are confident of making the airport operational by September 2012,” he said.
The first phase of the work scheduled to be completed by next year, includes construction of airport and initial infrastructure for the proposed township. After the completion of the first phase, the BAPL has plans to come out with an airport city which will have an IT park, hospitals and a residential complex.
