Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 13: Notwithstanding the fact that State Government has completed all the requisite formalities, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has yet not given permission to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for starting work on expansion of Jammu airport. In view of the prolonged delay in this regard, the Government has dashed a fresh communiqué to the concerned authorities in the Ministry for early decision.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that on the basis of decision taken in the Cabinet meeting, the Jammu district administration has already transferred 138 kanal of forest land to the Army at Sunjwan for non-forestry use in lieu of land under its occupation adjoining the airport, which is to be used for the expansion of airport.
Moreover, the administration has given more than Rs 7 crore to the Army authorities as compensation for the utilities, which will be razed on the land adjoining the airport during the expansion works but the Ministry of Defence has not yet issued formal work permission to the Airport Authority of India despite the fact that all requisite formalities have been completed and AAI is in the state of readiness to start expansion work, sources said.
In response to a question, sources said, “about five months back the Ministry of Defence after detailed analysis of the documents had sought certain clarifications from the State Government vis-à-vis alternate land at Sunjwan, which otherwise belongs to the Forest Department”.
“State Government in response to the same had stated that as per the Supreme Court guidelines the ownership of the alternate land will remain with Forest Department but Army will be free to make use of the same as per the changed land use”, sources said. The Government even conveyed to the Ministry of Defence that similar procedure was adopted in several other parts of the State where forest land was transferred to Army or any other agency for non-forestry purposes.
However, there has been no response from the Defence Ministry during the past 5 months and since everything was in the state of readiness for start of work on the airport expansion a fresh communiqué has been sent to the Ministry whereby request has been made for early grant of work permission to AAI. “Even in the fresh communiqué the clarification part has been reiterated”, sources added.
“It is unfortunate that MoD has not given work permission to the AAI as the issues raised by the MoD were resolved in the meetings convened by the Prime Minister’s Office”, sources regretted.
Responding to another question, sources said that alternate to the road which comes under the expansion plan has already been created while as work on diversion of irrigation channel will be started very shortly as the land for the same has already been identified. “Now, the expansion is struck at the MoD level and we hope the Ministry will consider the importance of the project and issue work permission to the AAI without wasting further time”, sources added.
The prestigious project is aimed at expanding the length of runway of Jammu airport by 1300 feet from existing length of 6700 feet in order to pave the way for landing and take off of planes will full load and capacity. Moreover, some terminal buildings would also be constructed for better facilities.
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