Three sites identified for devpt of new greenfield airport

Times of India: Surat: Thursday, July 26, 2018.

The district administration has identified three potential sites in Surat and Navsari districts for the proposed development of greenfield airport, which would be much bigger than the existing airport in Surat. As per information sought under the right to information (RTI) Act by city-based RTI activist Rajesh Modi, the district collector’s office stated that the process to identify new sites for development of greenfield airport is over and the report is submitted to chief secretary, Gujarat, JN Singh for further action. Three government land sites two in Surat’s Olpad taluka and one in Navsari district’s Jalalpore taluka have been identified for the new greenfield airport, located within the radius of 40 kilometre.

TOI was the first to break the story on the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the state government mulling a bigger airport within 40 km radius of the existing airport on March 29 this year. The sites have been identified in Olpad’s Kuwad and Pinjrat villages and Vansi Borsi village in Navsari’s Jalalpore taluka respectively.

According to copies available with TOI, Pinjrat village in Olpad taluka has 1,800 hectare of government land. However, the said laid is subject to soil testing and technical survey for the coastal regulation zone (CRZ) clearance. The second land is identified in Kuvad and Saras villages respectively in Olpad taluka, admeasuring 644 hectare. The third site is identified in Navsari’s Jalalpore taluka, where there is about 2,000 hectare of government land available in Vansi-Borsi and Mangrol villages respectively. Vansi-Borsi village has the biggest 1,800 hectare government land available for development of greenfield airport. At a meeting held between the AAI chairman and chief secretary on February 23 this year, apart from development of existing Surat airport, development of an alternate airport was also discussed, for which the state government agreed to identify few sites and forward the site coordinates to AAI for examination.

Surat’s district collector, in a note forwarded to AAI on September 22, 2017, stated that the required government owned land of about 2,000 hectare is identified near Jalalpore taluka in Navsari district. The proposed site is about 35 kilometre away from Surat, but the distance could be reduced to about 15-20km by constructing a bridge over river Mindhola. The site is also near to Navsari at 15-20 kilometre and airport facilities will serve the twin cities. The collector noted that the existing airport will be used till the time new airport is ready at the proposed place.