Land acquisition for expansion of Gaggal airport to start soon: RS Bali
Dharamsala, November 23
A team of Tourism Department officials led by RS Bali, Chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (HPTDC), and Mansi Thakur, Director, Tourism, on Wednesday visited areas where land is to be acquired for the expansion of the Gaggal airport.
Bali, while talking to mediapersons, said that the expansion of the Gaggal airport would be the biggest infrastructure project of the state. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, despite the financial constraint the state was facing, had committed Rs 2,000 crore for the airport expansion. The land acquisition process for the project would start soon, he added.
He said that the Tourism Department officials visited the area to look for opportunities of tourism development around the airport. “Our focus will be to provide employment to the local youth, especially those belonging to the families likely to be displaced due to the airport project. Air traffic to Kangra district will increase and airfares will come down once the airport is expanded. This will also attract investors to the area,” he added.
Bali said that the government would also ensure that people, who would be displaced, were given adequate compensation. Besides providing them the market rate for the land acquired, the government would also establish satellite townships for the displaced families, he added.
He said that the team visited various sites in the district where tourism villages had been proposed to be set up with funds from Asian Development Bank.
