Landowners get compensation
SHILLONG: The land acquisition process for the Baljek airport is more or less complete without much hindrance.
Indicating this, West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner Pravin Bakshi on Monday told The Shillong Times that district administration has distributed compensation to the land owners who had parted away with their land for the expansion of the airport.
Now the land is under the possession of the West Garo Hills Deputy Commissioner.
It may be mentioned that the District Administration has acquired 58 acres of land for the expansion of the airport at a budget of Rs two crore fifty eight lakh sixty thousand and six hundred eighty eight rupees.
However, there is a stretch of land which is under litigation as two nokmas are claiming that the stretch of land belonged to them.
The expansion of the airport would pave way for landing of atleast 30 seater aircraft in the airport, which remained non functional since the time it was inaugurated with much fanfare by Pratibha Patil, the then President of India, almost four years back
According to Bakshi, the land acquisition process was completed very quickly. “Now the airport requires around sixty personnel including para-military forces to make it operational,” he said.
The State Government at its own level is also holding talks with Spirit Air for operating smaller aircraft from there.
The Government is keen to introduce a flight from Kolkata to Tura via Shillong.
The airport set up at Jengjal, around 33 kms from Tura, was built at a cost of Rs 12.52 crore. It was inaugurated on October 23, 2008 by Patil when the UDP-NCP led government was in power in the state.
Since its inception, the project was marred in controversy as the proposal was sent to the Centre in 1983, but was sanctioned only in 1995.
