Cold storage project failure mocks industrialisation

Kolkata: In the backdrop of expediting industrial rejuvenation in the state, one would be at a loss if asked to choose between the setting up of the two entirely divergent yet key facilities in a north Bengal district ~ a cold storage or an aerodrome. Financial assistance amounting to Rs 1.62 crore to Cooch Behar Samabay Himghar Samity (CSHS), a cooperative society, to build a cold storage was rendered fruitless owing to the height of the storage facility which was located near an aerodrome at Chakchaka in Cooch Behar.
The oversight of building the cold storage to a height unacceptable to the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation which cost the government exchequer this tidy sum cannot be dismissed as a political canard campaign. For this is a finding of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) which is backed by irrefutable facts.
The CSHS decided in April 2007 that the payment of share capital/loans and payment of interest to the state government is to be “kept in abeyance”. The CSHS decided this on the ground that the cold storage had not been “put to commercial operation” and it would have to be “demolished”. The cold storage with a height of 19.80 metres was proposed to be constructed less than a kilometre from Cooch Behar aerodrome. While approving the project, the state cooperation department did not consider the restrictions on the height of constructions within a radius of 20 km of an airport imposed by the ministry of civil aviation.
The department did not insist that the CSHS refer the matter to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for obtaining no objection certificate (NOC), the CAG report noted.
02/11/08 Tirthankar Mitra/The Statesman

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Categories: Airports Nov 2008, Safety Nov 2008