UP seeks Centre’s in-principle okay for Jewar airport

In a letter dated March 13 to Ashok Chawla, Secretary, Department of Civil Aviation, the state has also requested the Centre to convene an early meeting of the Group of Ministers.

The meeting, it was requested, should be held preferably under the chairmanship of the Centre’s Cabinet Secretary, in which the UP government authorities should also be allowed to participate.

The letter also mentions Chief Minister Mayawati’s meeting with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in May, immediately after she came to power and the Prime Minister was supportive of the project.

The project suffered a setback after the UPA government referred it to a GoM to examine contractual issues.

According to sources in the Central government, the GoM held its meeting on January 31 and directed the Ministry of Law and Civil Aviation to finalise the legal issues.

But the state is yet to receive a response on this.

The state government, an official said, “has already ensured its responsibility in preparing the bidding documents for the selection of the developer”.

The biggest hurdle the airport is facing is a rule of the Centre that does not permit a second airport within 150-kilometer aerial distance of an existing one.

Incidentally, the Centre has recently allowed the Maharashtra government to construct the Navi Mumbai airport outside Mumbai because of the growing traffic in the city.

The Rs 5,000 crore project requiring 1,500 hectares of land is to be developed on Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis.

Speaking to The Indian Express, officials of the UP Industry Department blamed the Centre’s unprofessional attitude for increasing the cost of the project.