Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) has received the second tranche of 515.33 acres for the proposed aerotropolis project in Andal. With this, BAPL has received a total of 1,049 acres of land which includes 650 acres for the airport.
The second tranche of land was recently handed over to BAPL by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) through a 99 years lease agreement signed between BAPL and WBIDC. The cumulative lease premium paid, so far, by BAPL is Rs 88.48 crore.
BAPL has already commenced site preparation work for the country?s first privately owned airport. The airport is expected to have a passenger volume of approximately 4 lakh passengers. This passenger traffic in the region surrounding Durgapur in West Bengal is expected to grow by as much as 12% in the next few years, said Subrata Paul, CEO, BAPL.
The WBIDC handed over the first tranche of 533.51 acres of land required for the project to BAPL. The integrated Aerotropolis project is spread over approximately 2300 acres of which the airport will be built on 650 acres of land. The airport is scheduled to be operational by late 2011.
Land acquisition process for the project commenced after a rehabilitation package that was determined by consensus with people?s elected representatives. The unique and first of its kind rehabilitation package offers a land?for-land scheme to land givers. Besides this, the rehabilitation package also offers free vocational training at ITI, Durgapur to one eligible person from each land giver?s family. Training at ITI commenced from September 4, 2009, and two batches consisting of 356 trainees are currently engaged in the program.
On receipt of the second tranche of land, Paul said: ?We have already received approximately 1049 acres of land in two phases and have started site preparation work for the airport, which will be followed by extensive civil construction work.?
He further added: ?We are expecting to receive the remaining portion of over 1,000 acres of land within next few months.?
The first of its kind private Greenfield Aerotropolis project is going to be developed in association with Singapore?s Changi Airports International (CAI). The project will bring in socio-economic upliftment to the Asansol-Durgapur region and create the second metropolitan city in the region.
