AG grounds second Delhi airport

The country’s highest law officer, the attorney general of India, has told the Centre that setting up a greenfield airport in Greater Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi would clearly violate the agreement signed between the GMR group-led consortium upgrading the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and the ministry of civil aviation.
This means that the proposed Rs 5,000-crore Taj International Aviation Hub at Jewar in Greater Noida—first conceptualised in 2001 by UP chief minister Mayawati’s previous administration—is unlikely to come up now. The verdict also grounds Haryana’s first proposed airport at Jhajjar. Both airports would lie within 150 km of Delhi airport, violating the developer-ministry concession agreement.
In February, a group of ministers had given the Greater Noida airport in-principle approval, while also creating another group to look into the legal issues. The second GoM had asked the law ministry to examine the matter, which, in turn, sought the attorney general’s views. With the attorney general agreeing with the law ministry’s view that the Greater Noida airport would violate the concession agreement, the Mayawati government has few options left to see the project though.
According to a source, the state government is contemplating legal recourse to counter the attorney general’s opinion.
28/08/08 Deepa Jainani/Shauvik Ghosh/Financial Express

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Categories: Airports Aug 2008, New Aug 2008