Airport city trimmed to save coal

Calcutta: The proposed airport city in Burdwan’s Andal will be 400 acres smaller and three steel plants planned in its vicinity will be relocated to protect vast coal reserves underground.
The formula to lift the coal cloud on Bengal Aerotropolis was finalised at a meeting between the Coal India chairman and senior state officials at Writers’ Buildings today.
Coal India had objected to the project saying the reserves in the area would become inaccessible.
The Aerotropolis will have a township, an airport, a golf course and entertainment hubs spread across 3,500 acres. A consortium of three companies is promoting it with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) playing the facilitator.
Industries secretary Sab- yasachi Sen said: “The 3,500-acre project area will be curtailed by 400 acres. Three proposed steel plants in the Burdwan-Durgapur belt will be relocated so that Coal India gets access to a big quantum of coal reserves there. Coal extraction is in national interest and can’t be compromised. On the basis of today’s discussions, the state and the Union governments will talk after the Lok Sabha polls.”
Sen added that shifting the proposed Abhijeet Group, Bhushan and Videocon steel projects would not be a problem as no land had been acquired for any of them.
However, another cloud hangs over the airport city project. A section of villagers has set up a save-farmland committee led by the Trinamul Congress and Naxalites and is demanding Rs 18 lakh an acre as compensation. The government has offered between Rs 7.5 lakh and Rs 11.5 lakh an acre depending on the fertility of the land and its proximity to the highway (NH 2).
The villagers have threatened an agitation on the lines of Singur and Nandigram if their demands — which includes direct with the promoters — are not met.
08/04/09 The Telegraph

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Apr 2009, New Apr 2009