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Maharashtra Allots Rs 438 Crore for Civil Aviation Towards Land Acquisition in State Budget

  • The Maharashtra government has provisioned Rs 438 crore for the civil aviation sector towards acquisition of land for development of airports in Rajgurunagar, Amravati, Kolhapur, Shirdi, Karad and an airstrip for a Multi-modal International cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur (MIHAN). This information was divulged by Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister, Government of Maharashtra while presenting the state budget for 2012-13 yesterday. While no specific mention of the funds allotted towards the proposed airport at Rajgurunagar was made, the allocation comes after a long gap and is being seen as an important development towards pushing the development process, according to a report by The Indian Express.

  • S K Jain, Vice President and Chairman, Civil Aviation Committee, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA), said, "The priority now should be to get a significant chunk of the allotted figure towards land acquisition for the new Pune International Airport. This allotment in the state budget, which comes after two-three years, is a positive sign and we are hopeful that the process of acquiring the land will begin soon. If everything goes well, the new Pune airport may come up before the Navi Mumbai airport."

  • The MCCIA had sent a letter to the Chief Minister slating a requirement of about Rs 300 crore towards the new Pune airport. With the location of the airport finalised, the fund requirement for lane acquisition of around 8,000 acres is expected to be nearly Rs 1000 - 1200 crore. Jain said as per the arrangement decided earlier, the Maharashtra Airport Development Company (MADC) was demanding Rs 200 crore from the state government and the rest of the amount was to be raised from banks. "If the MADC gains about Rs 200 crore-plus amount, then raising the rest of the funds should not be a big challenge." said Jain.

  • Vikas Deshmukh, District Collector, Pune said, "I do not know the exact amount sanctioned for Pune airport, but the allotment being made in the budget is a welcome development given that the process of land acquisition will begin. In any case, whatever component we get out of this allotted amount is just a token to start the acquisition process as we will not have to make the compensation payments in one go. The option of demanding further funds as supplement always remains open in future. If the budget allotment has been announced by the deputy CM, then the land acquisition process should begin in a few months." Deshmukh said that the preliminary surveys had been done.

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