Land acquisition for expansion of Gaggal airport to begin soon

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, December 27

The Congress government in the state will soon start the process of acquiring land for the expansion of the Gaggal airport in Kangra district.

Proposal sent to govt for 105-acre land

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The district administration has sent a proposal to the state government for the acquisition of 105 acres — including 65-acre private and 40-acre govt — of land for the Gaggal airport expansion. Kangra DC confirmed the development.

Sources said Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had ordered a social impact analysis for the expansion of the Gaggal airport. The social impact analysis is carried out before the land acquisition of the project is started. In the analysis, consent of the people, who would be displaced due the acquisition of land for the airport expansion, would be taken by the authorities.

IT adviser to the Government Gokul Butail tweeted that the Chief Minister has ordered a social impact analysis of the Gaggal airport. The expansion of the airport was on high priority of the new Congress government, Butail has tweeted.

The sources said the district administration had also sent a proposal to the state government for the acquisition of 105-acre land for expansion of airport. This includes about 65 acres of private land and 40 acres of government land. Kangra DC Nipun Jindal said the case for acquisition of 105 acre land for expansion had been sent to the state government.

An amount of Rs 400 crores was sanctioned by central finance commission for expansion during the stint of the previous BJP government. The airport expansion was a major demand of the tourism industry.

Hotel associations of Kangra have been demanding the expansion, pleading that airfares from Delhi to Kangra were among the highest in the country as only small 70-seater planes can land here. However, in case the airport was expanded bigger planes would land here. This will bring more tourists because of reduced airfares.

They have been demanding that like Jammu and Kashmir and the northeastern states, the Union Government should subsidise airfare to Himachal so that more tourists can come here.

The Gaggal airport is proposed to be expanded in two phases. Sources said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to expand the airport from current length of 1,372 m to 1,900 m in the first phase. In the second phase the length is proposed to be increased from 1,900 m to 3,110 m.

The sources further said for the first phase of expansion, the AAI would have to construct a bridge over the Manji river flowing through the areas. The proposal was mooted to either construct a bridge over the Manji river for expansion of airport or to divert the river. The work for structural strength and design of the bridge to be constructed over the Manji river that can sustain the weight of the planes has been assigned to a Pune-based institute by the state government. The institute is likely to submit a report in the next three months.