Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), the developers of the first airport-city project in the country at Andal around 200 kilometer north-west of Kolkata, is hopeful of getting possession of 650 acres required for the first phase of the project by July-end and plans to start work within October this year.
The Trinamool Congress(TMC) had initially opposed the land acquisition process for the project demanding better compensation for the land-losers, but later said that it would not oppose if people were willing to give land. With TMC now sweeping the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal beating the Left Front, it can throw some uncertainties on the fate of the project. The promoters, however said that "We are yet to evaluate the situation on ground and would wait until the dust settles down," said sources.
The Bardhaman district magistrate's office had already issued land acquisition notices in the area. "Declarations under section 6 are over and now notices under section 9 of the Land Acquisition Act have begun", informed a senior BAPL official who did not want to be identified.
The company requires 650 acres initially to start work on the airport and the approach roads. Interestingly, the BAPL project site, that was located along National Highway 2 to the south and a state highway to the west had an abandoned Indian army air-strip that was cosntructed during the Second World War. "The airport would take 18 months to build and should be operatinal within 24 months of commencement of work", informed the source in BAPL.
In another interesting turn of events, following opposition from Coal India Ltd (CIL), the project area for the aerotropolis was reduced by around 400 acres in April this year. This was done to safeguard coal reserves and reduce the Eastern Coal Fields(ECL) impact zone by 1.92 square km. "The golf course planned inside the site would have to shift eastwards to accomodate the redefining of boundaries", the BAPL official said.
The company will now get 2,182 acres in phase one of the project instead of the originally planned 2,363 acres, and the remaining 219 acres will be adjusted in the second phase. The airport-city was originally involved 3500 acres including airport, industrial & commercial hubs, residential areas, theme park and allied infrastructure at an investment of around Rs 10,000 crore.
The source in BAPL also indicated that the there could be slight tweaking in costs in the range of 8-10 per cent on account of contingencies and events. The debt-equity ratio for the project was 1:2.25 for the intial investment Rs 675 crore in the first phase, of which the airport would require an investment of around Rs 230 crore.
