Aerotropolis: CM, Praful meet on Monday

Durgapur: The fate of the proposed Aerotropolis project at Andal will be decided at a meeting between chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union civil aviation minister Mr Praful Patel on Monday.
Mr Patel's meeting with Mr Bhattacharjee has become more significant after the Union coal ministry's fresh suggestion to shift the project to a non-coal bearing zone. Union minister of state for coal, Mr Santosh Bagrodia, in a letter on 19 December to Mr Patel stated: “It would be prudent to ensure the availability of such energy source (coal) by not constructing infrastructure facility on coal bearing areas and to take steps to develop these on the adjacent non-coal bearing zones. Intervention in the matter of proposed location of the aero-complex at Andal is to be reviewed, keeping in the view the enormous demand for domestic superior grade coal and thermal coal from Raniganj Coalfields for various industries and proposed power plants mainly in West Bengal.”
The state power minister, Mr Mrinal Banerjee, however seemed unperturbed with the fresh letter from the coal ministry. He said: “Our plants are forced to run with acute coal shortage throughout the year. But there must be several alternatives to tackle the situation. This entire industrial hub has immense underground coal reserves. Then would it be worthy to remove the factories, colonies and localities to help Coal India to extract coal? As far as my knowledge goes, the CIL didn't have plans to mine the proposed Aerotropolis site. They have started debating only after the Aerotropolis project was given clearance.”
28/12/08 Kanchan Siddiqui/The Statesman

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Categories: Airports Dec 2008, New Dec 2008