SHILLONG: The future of Shillong Airport at Umroi looks bleak as the State Government is yet to hand over land for its expansion to the Airport Authority of India.
The Principal Secretary of the Transport department of NEC, PHK Singh on Saturday said that land has not been handed over in spite of the State Governor’s intervention into the matter.
He said that the matter was expected to be resolved by July 30, but till date there is no sign of handing over of land to the AAI.
The delay in handing over the land to AAI has affected the proposed expansion of the airport.
“At least the Advance Landing System could have been installed had the land been handed over on time,” Singh said.
The NEC official also said that fund is no problem as far as expansion and improvement of the infrastructure of the airport is concerned.
Earlier, the state government had said Rs.44,89,00,000 has been disbursed among the landowners.
The Government also clarified that a Supplementary proposal for Land Acquisition around Umroi airport amounting to Rs.11,44,03,177 was submitted by the Deputy Commissioner Ri Bhoi which after examination was referred back by the Government to the DC to submit the Land Acquisition proposal according to the provision of Land Acquisition Act, 1894 and to re-submit fresh Supplementary Award for inclusion of the amount payable on account of re-classification of land.
It may be mentioned that the land owners have refused to part with their land for the project owing to the delay in releasing the compensation amount.
The airport so far has only one flight that connects Shillong with Kolkata on six days a week.