Jharkhand: Dhalbhumgarh airport work will begin soon, says Bidyut Baran Mahato

Jamshedpur BJP MP Bidyut Baran Mahato said the work on Dhalbhumgarh airport would begin as soon as the forest department gives a no-objection certificate.
Mahato, who was present at the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s programme in Ranchi on Thursday, said he met the local head of Airports Authority of India Vinod Kumar on the sidelines of the event and enquired about the project.
Mahato said: “Kumar informed me that work would begin as soon as the forest department gives its nod.” The MP said after that tenders would be floated and work would begin on the airstrip, which is around 60km from Jamshedpur.
Mahato added that the forest department was taking time to give the nod. He expressed confidence that work on this project would begin soon and would be completed within the time frame.
The MP lauded the PM for the announcements he made during his Jharkhand visit on Thursday.
Earlier, the defence ministry had given the green signal for the construction of an airport on a 240-acre land. The land, where the airport is slated to come up on, has a tarmac constructed by the British during World War II. The airstrip was extensively used by the armed forces during the 1962 and 1971 wars, too.
The ground-breaking programme of this project took place on January 24 this year and it was estimated that the first part of the project would be completed within 2020, after which small aircraft could land there. Thereafter, the next part of the project would be taken up and after its completion, bigger planes would be able to land.
After the launch, the project could not progress much as it got tangled in NOC cobweb. There is little hope that the project could meet its deadline, said sources at the project site.
The airport project when completed would benefit large sections of people living in Jharkhand and neighbouring West Bengal and Odisha, said sources.