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Bengal’s first private airport at the industrial town of Durgapur may be operational only by early next year.
Promoted by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) — a JV between Changi Airports International (26 per cent) and four Indian companies — the commissioning of the airport is held up due to delay in shifting an electricity transmission line passing through the runway. According to a BAPL statement, rest of the construction is near complete.
Though the West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (WBSETCL) allowed BAPL to shift the transmission facility, construction work is inordinately delayed due to local resistance to land acquisition, according to sources.
“We estimate that the high-voltage power transmission line will be re-aligned within this calendar year, immediately after which we will initiate the process for final stage DGCA approval,” a BAPL official told Business Line . The company previously promised commissioning of the airport by early 2013.
According to Arun Mishra, Director, General Civil Aviation, shifting of the high-voltage power transmission line is the primary condition before BAPL.
“We have done an inspection at the upcoming Durgapur airport months back. BAPL has to fulfil certain compliances before DGCA issues them a licence,” Mishra said.
Once the transmission line is shifted, other procedures can be completed in a short span of time, he added. Besides, according to Mishra, BAPL has to form a tie-up with Airports Authority of India for air traffic control system.
BAPL is in talks with a few airlines to introduce services at the Durgapur airport, which is projected to tap the potential of the Durgapur-Asansol industrial area.
> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in
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