india

Updated: May 07, 2019 15:26 IST

The district administration of Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad has sent a draft proposal to the state government to purchase land to make the civil terminal at Sikandarpur near the Hindon airbase a permanent terminal, officials have said.

The newly-developed civil terminal was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8 and is scheduled to start operations—flights to eight cities—by end of May. The terminal was set up on 22,050 square metres of land leased from local farmers for three years of operations.

“We have prepared and sent an initial assessment of the land to the UP government and the Airports Authority of India. The proposal includes the per square metre rate for direct purchase of land from farmers. Consent from a farmer, who holds about 6,000 square metres of land and is the biggest stakeholder in the matter, has also been sent along with the proposal,” Ghaziabad’s district magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said.

“The state government, a week ago, had asked the administration to prepare the proposal for permanent purchase of land on which the civil terminal will operate. Earlier, we had to purchase land to lay the main road connecting the Delhi-Wazirabad Road to the civil terminal. It is likely that the civil terminal land will be purchased outright to make it permanent,” she added.

According to officials, there are about 25 farmers whose land has been procured on a three-year lease, which is extendable to two more years. However, with the latest directions from the state government, the probability of permanent operation of flights from the civil terminal has increased.

Officials are also drawing a traffic movement plan which will be utilised once the civil terminal starts operating flights from the end of May.

The civil terminal near the Hindon airbase was constructed as part of the regional connectivity scheme of the Centre, also known as Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik or UDAN, and a proposal to operate flights to eight routes was made—Nasik, Pithoragarh, Kannur, Hubli, Faizabad, Shimla, Jamnagar and Kalaburgi.

The civil terminal has come up near the Hindon airbase at a cost of about ₹60 crore. It was constructed to ease traffic at the Delhi airport.