District administration today handed over the land for Kishangarh Airport, which is expected to be ready by 2016, to Airports Authority of India.
The facility, with 2,152-meter long runway will come up at a sprawling 441.7 acres of land and is aimed at giving air connectivity to the city, famous for Pushkar fair and Dargah of Sufi Saint Khwaja Moindudin Chisti.
Initially, aircraft with maximum 90 passengers capacity would be able to land here, but after expansion of runway upto 2,500 meter, even airbus can land here, AAI GM (Engineering), G D Gupta, said.
The work for runway construction is scheduled to begin before July 15 and the airport is targeted to be ready by June 2016, he said.
Ajmer District Collector Vaibhav Galaria today completed formalities regarding the transfer of the land with the AAI officials and the land's possession was handed over to them.
Sanganer (Jaipur) Airport Director Paul Manikkam said tendering process was underway for the construction of the terminal and runway.
The work of the airport will take place in two phases and the estimated cost of the first phase is Rs 160 crore, Manikkam said.
The state government has the land and out of total 441.7 acre land, 328.72 acre is of acquisition. The AAI had already taken possession of 221.20 acre land in 2009.
A few families residing on the land will be rehabilitated.
At present, the nearest airport to Ajmer is Sanganer in Jaipur with a distance of nearly 150 kms whereas Kishangarh, located on Jaipur-Ajmer highway, is about 30 kms away from the city.
Ajmer is a much-frequented destination as it houses the dargah of revered sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti and Pushkar fair is organised annually where a large number of people including VIPs visit every year.
