Row over Shirdi trust's move to give Rs 50 cr for airport project

Shirdi : The Shirdi Saibaba Sansthan, a trust which manages the famous Saibaba temple here, is in the eye of a political storm over its move to extend a Rs 50 crore financial assistance for the upcoming Shirdi airport project.
The trust is headed by former Congress legislator Jayant Sasane, a close aide of state agriculture minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, who is also a member of the temple's board of trustees and a sitting MLA from Shirdi.
A fairly successful bandh was observed in the temple town on Wednesday to protest the move on the grounds that the cash-rich temple trust ought to address more pressing priorities such as construction of roads, drinking water and other civic amenities in the town rather than fund the airport project, which is the state government's responsibility.
It may be noted that construction work for the Rs 118-crore Shirdi airport project over a 750-acre land at village Kakdi, 10 km from here, had started last year under supervision of the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC), which is a special purpose vehicle of the state government and is headed by the chief minister.
The MADC has engaged a Hyderabad-based contractor for executing the civil works, including laying of a new runway, construction of the terminal building, safety compound, etc. Most of these works have progressed to the halfway stage mark, but the same have come to a standstill for the last couple of weeks over the pendency of the contractor's bills running up to nearly Rs 20 crore.
23/04/11 Tarachand Mhaske/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Apr 2011, New Apr 2011