As per records available with the bankers, the private airport near Durgapur was declared ready for commercial operations in April 2013.
But not many have a clue when the airport will be ready to operate flights.
A high tension transmission wire of State electricity distribution utility is still cross-crossing the run way, blocking scope for regulatory approval. It could not be shifted in time due to Trinamool Congress sponsored protests against land acquisition since 2008. The land tangle was solved by the government early this year. But the solution did not come cheap. The final pay out towards shifting of transmission line is nearly a quarter of the cost of building the airport.
However, even such high pay out brought little respite to the promoters as the State utility has missed the revised timelines of shifting the transmission line by September 2014. It means the regulatory approval for operating commercial flights is unlikely to come before March 2015.
The facility is facing another hurdle with agitation over a 900-metres stretch that will link the airport with the National Highway-2. And, this time, the agitators are drawing inspiration from BJP.
BJP is backing agitators demanding as high a compensation as ₹1 crore an acre. It is a different matter that they had agreed to the compensation formula in 2010.
“We have already paid the decided compensation amounts to the State for distribution to the landowners,” a Bengal Aeropropolis Pvt Ltd source told BusinessLine .