Uttar Pradesh government will soon take a call on the commercial viability of the proposed international airport in Kushinagar estimated to cost Rs 829 crore.
While, the state government had already acquired about 167 acres for the main airport, the rest of the land both for the airport and the commercial enclave are yet to be acquired. The state government had notified 13 villages for the acquisition of roughly 640 acres.
Four infrastructure companies — GMR, GVK, L&T and Gammon India — are in fray after qualifying the Request for Qualification (RfQ) stage.
The project, which had already been given in-principle approval and environment clearance by the Centre, has also received the Central No Objection Certificate (NoC) recently.
“Now, that the project has been cleared, the state infrastructure and industrial development commissioner (IIDC) will convene a meeting next month to discuss the commercial viability and funding issues related to it,” UP tourism secretary and State Tourism Development Corporation managing director Avnish Awasthi told Business Standard.
However, he said that any airport functioned with the coordination of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Customs department. The necessary coordination with these agencies will also be followed up, he said.
The project seeks to boost Buddhist Circuit tourism in the eastern parts of UP.
The state government already owned 100 acres of land in the form of an old airstrip built in 1946 for emergency services. The proposed airport will have a 3,200 metre long airstrip.
Awasthi said all the issues pertaining to land acquisition had been resolved to the satisfaction of the land owners and farmers.
“The government has paid nearly Rs 140 crore to land owners as compensation. The land owners, who do not live in the notified villages are the only ones left out now,” he said.
The airport will connect Buddhist Circuit directly with countries accounting for maximum backpackers, including Japan, Myanmar, Korea, China, Thailand, Bhutan and Sri Lanka.
