Fund crunch slows down Greater Noida airport plans
NEW DELHI: An airport at Greater Noida’s Jewar, on the southeastern fringes of India’s capital, was first suggested 16 years ago: The wait will get longer after the local government said it even lacks funds to finance a crucial study on the project.
The government in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state that is now in the process of electing its local legislature, cited lack of money to conduct an 'obstacle study' at the proposed airport site. "An obstacle study would not cost more than few lakhs and it is difficult to believe that the state government does not have that kind of money," a senior official at the Airports Authority of India told ET.
The state government last month wrote to the federal aviation ministry about its inability to conduct the study that ascertains whether the proposed site has any obstacle to cause obstructions in flight movements. The decision to conduct the study at the proposed site was taken in July during the last aviation ministry meeting on the Jewar airport.
A civil aviation ministry official said the letter seems unnecessary when the state is in the midst of an election process. "Assembly elections are being conducted in the state to elect a new government. The government will take a decision on the issue at an appropriate time," said a senior aviation ministry official, who did not want to be named.
The proposal for an airport in Jewar was made in 2001 when current home minister Rajnath Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. His successor Mayawati also backed the plan and acquired more than 2,000 acres for the project.
The UPA government at the centre then formed a group of ministers to decide on the project as it violated a policy to build another airport within 150 km of the existing Delhi facility. The plan was revived after Mahesh Sharma, who represents Noida in the Lok Sabha, became junior civil aviation minister. He was later replaced by Jayant Sinha.
The Samjawadi Party, in power in Uttar Pradesh over the past five years, had initially favoured Agra over Jewar for a new airport. It later agreed on the Jewar project but wants another at Agra, the home to the Taj, India’s iconic monument to love.
The government in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state that is now in the process of electing its local legislature, cited lack of money to conduct an 'obstacle study' at the proposed airport site. "An obstacle study would not cost more than few lakhs and it is difficult to believe that the state government does not have that kind of money," a senior official at the Airports Authority of India told ET.
The state government last month wrote to the federal aviation ministry about its inability to conduct the study that ascertains whether the proposed site has any obstacle to cause obstructions in flight movements. The decision to conduct the study at the proposed site was taken in July during the last aviation ministry meeting on the Jewar airport.
A civil aviation ministry official said the letter seems unnecessary when the state is in the midst of an election process. "Assembly elections are being conducted in the state to elect a new government. The government will take a decision on the issue at an appropriate time," said a senior aviation ministry official, who did not want to be named.
The proposal for an airport in Jewar was made in 2001 when current home minister Rajnath Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. His successor Mayawati also backed the plan and acquired more than 2,000 acres for the project.
The UPA government at the centre then formed a group of ministers to decide on the project as it violated a policy to build another airport within 150 km of the existing Delhi facility. The plan was revived after Mahesh Sharma, who represents Noida in the Lok Sabha, became junior civil aviation minister. He was later replaced by Jayant Sinha.
The Samjawadi Party, in power in Uttar Pradesh over the past five years, had initially favoured Agra over Jewar for a new airport. It later agreed on the Jewar project but wants another at Agra, the home to the Taj, India’s iconic monument to love.
