Eastern India Gets a Boost
It’s a proud moment for eastern India, a region that has historically lagged behind in areas of development. On May 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inspected India’s first greenfield private airport at Andal near Durgapur, about 160 kms northwest Kolkata.
This state-of-the-art facility is the first of 17 projects declared under the country’s greenfield airport policy.
On April 24 the Director General of Civil Aviation granted the aerodrome licence to the 650-acre Kazi Nazrul Islam airport.
It will benefit those from the Asansol-Raniganj belt. They travel 200 kms to reach Kolkata or Ranchi to catch flights heading to New Delhi or Mumbai. The new facility, less than 45 kms away, will significantly reduce travel time. An estimated half a million passengers are expected to use the airport annually and the figure is expected to double in three years, as AC II-tier train passengers gradually cross over.
No Longer Dependent on Kolkata or Ranchi
Asansol is the 42nd fastest growing city in the world and India’s 10th fastest. This belt is among the country’s richest in mineral deposits and one of the largest commodity trade centres. With its existing facilities and huge potential in metal-work, power-intensive industries, mining, iron and steel, engineering and petrochemicals, the 1,616 sq km Asansol-Durgapur Planning Area is expecting the new airport to give economic activity in this region a further boost.
Developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), a six-year-long journey has now come to a close. BAPL is promoted by Changi Airports India Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Changi Airports International, Singapore, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd and a few other Indian promoters.
BAPL managing director Partha Ghosh said: “Starting with land acquisition it has been a long road for us. It gives us immense pleasure to complete a project that will be a model for the others that come up under the greenfield airport policy. We have another four to five years of hectic activity ahead as the airport is just one part of our plans for this region. We are making a marked shift from the traditional city airport to an airport city or aerotropolis.”
The airport is the centrepiece of the Rs 10,000 crore aerotropolis. An aerotropolis is an economic hub that extends out from an airport into a surrounding area comprising distribution and logistics centres, office buildings, convention centres, service industries and related social infrastructure.
A New Take-off
This will be the sixth such infrastructure development project in the world and the first in India. The aerotropolis has been granted industrial township status by the state government. It empowers the township’s promoters to act as a municipal authority.
BAPL estimates that once completed, the entire project will create around 83,000 jobs. While negotiations are underway with private airlines, commercial operations will begin on May 18 with Air India flights.
This much neglected region is all set to take off.
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