Land galore for greenfield airport

SHILLONG, Sep 12: Meghalaya has often been beleaguered by dearth in terms of acquiring land for government projects, but the tables seem to have turned as multiple landowners have stepped forward to sell their land off to the government for the construction of greenfield airport.
New airports have been coming up across India in recent times but what actually goes into choosing the location for an airport?
So far, 7-8 landowners have made offers to the state government.
The biggest chunk of land being offered to build the airport is more than 5,000 acres. This chunk of land touches the boundary of Mairang and Ri-Bhoi district.
In addition, another land measuring around a thousand acres is being offered at Mawrong.
It is estimated that the requirement of land for the airport is around 2,000 acres. If the government has plans to construct logistics park and aerocity in future, it is certain that it would require huge chunk of land.
The 5,000-acre land is adjacent to Ri-Bhoi and East Khasi Hills districts.
Another chunk of land measuring 1,400 acres has been offered at Shnat Rait Tynring, while another offer has been made for 3,100-acre land in Madan Umwang.
In Lumrit village, there is an offer for land panning across 2,357 acres of area, another 1,000-2,000-acre land is also offered in Diengpassoh.
Quoting national media on what goes into making an airport, it is said that the first requirement, of course, is large tracts of land that provide enough space for aircraft to take off and land, terminal buildings that should have eating places, shops selling a variety of products, a control tower, boundary wall to ensure safety and security at the airport as also space for offices and parking.
Besides, if the airport has more than 15 aircraft movements an hour, then it also needs rapid exit taxiways, which too require land.
As per a report in the media, commissioning an airport with one runway with one terminal requires almost 1,250 acres of land.
“If you need two runways, double it to 2,500 acres of land and so on. Having as much area as is possible is always good for commercial exploitation. For example, Delhi Airport, with three runways, is spread over 5,100 acres of land while the new airport in Mopa is going to come up on over 2,000 acres,” the report says.
It may be mentioned that the search committee of the state government inspected several locations for the greenfield airport.
Earlier, the state government had floated an expression of interest for acquisition of land for the greenfield airport construction.
It is learnt that after the government inspection, an expert team from the Airports Authority of India would visit these locations and prepare a report that will be submitted to the state government.