BHUBANESWAR: The proposed Shree Jagannath International Airport at Puri got further impetus after the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) cleared diversion of forest land for the ambitious project.
Sources said the MoEFCC has accorded clearance for 27.85 hectare of forest land (deemed forest), which amounts to around 68.81 acre, for the international airport, which will come up on an area of around 1,164.75 acre. The airport land includes 68.81 acre of forest, 221.89 acre of private and the rest state government land in Sipasarubali and Sandhapur under Brahmagiri tehsil. The private land required for the project includes 153.78 acre in Sipasarubali and 68.11 acre in Sandhapur.
The Puri district administration has issued a preliminary notification under section 11 (1) of Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 regarding acquisition of land for the airport. People have been asked to submit objection, if any, by January 3.
“Forest clearance has been obtained for the airport project following the district level committee reports. While the government land has already been demarcated and a boundary wall constructed around it, the process has begun for acquisition of private land with the notification. The land losers will be paid compensation after benchmark valuation,” said a revenue official of Puri.
In September, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had granted site clearance approval for the project. The clearance was obtained exactly a year after the government submitted all requisites to the ministry seeking clearance to set up the airport in accordance with the Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008.
Sources said the state government is in the process of appointing a consultant for the preparation of detailed project report (DPR) for grant of ‘in-principle’ approval. The state will have to submit its application along with the DPR for in-principle approval of the steering committee on greenfield airports. As per initial estimates, the airport will be built at a cost of around Rs 5,631 crore.
The international airport at Puri was necessitated as it is being developed into a world-class heritage city and Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) at Bhubaneswar has reached its design capacity limit. BPIA handled 3.62 million passengers in 2022-23 to become the 17th busiest (11th among non-metro cities) airport. It is busier than Nagpur, Visakhapatnam, Indore, Udaipur, Thiruvananthapuram and Varanasi. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has handed over 160.35 acre of land at Rasgovindpur to the state government for further development and infrastructure augmentation of the World War II era airstrip there.
Boost to project
The ministry has accorded clearance for 27.85 ha forest land
The airport will come up on an area of around 1,164.75 acre
The land losers will be compensated after benchmark valuation