Shillong,July 15: High Court of Meghalaya wanted the defence, state government, Airport Authority of India, Director General of Civil Aviation to speed up the expansion project of the Shillong Airport.
The pending PIL on the matter was taken up on Tuesday by the division bench comprising Chief Justice IP Mukerji and Justice W Diengdoh and the court also examined the report submitted by AAI.
“On examination of this report, we find that now only the essential preliminary ground work which was required to be made for expansion and development of the Shillong Airport has been done. From now, a substantial amount of work is required to be done at appreciable pace to make the project operational in the near future”, the bench said.
The court observed that 22 acres of land are required for the project, with 10.30 acres to be acquired from the defence authorities. The state government has approved the purchase of 11.75 acres of land for Rs 72,17,56,237 by entering into sale agreements with individual land owners. The land is expected to be acquired by July, this year. The Ministry of Defence has accorded sanction for the state to work on 10.30 acres of military land at Umroi Military Station, on an agreement between itself and the state for transfer of land of equal value by the state to the Ministry.
As per a draft master plan, runway 4 (RWY 4) would be extended by 571 metres taking its total length to 2400 metres.
On completion of this extension of RWY 4, landing operation of aircrafts would be from the runway 22 (RWY 22 ) and their take off from RWY 4.
During the hearing, the Deputy Solicitor General of India Mozika has submitted that the tender for carrying out construction, renovation and alteration of the infrastructure of the airport would be granted by the Airports Authority of India to a contractor immediately upon receipt of land from the State and Defence authorities and on obtaining the necessary environmental clearance.
Mozika also submitted that his client, the Airports Authority of India would also have to remove some impediments to aircraft operation caused by the presence of mounds, trees etc. along the
flight path to the airport.
flight path to the airport.
The court will hear the matter on August 12.
