Why were four years wasted? Gehlot questions Centre over airport land in Kota

Jaipur: The issue of a greenfield airport in Kota has once again started echoing in Rajasthan as Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had put the ball in the Centre's court regarding the delayed implementation of the airport project.

On Thursday, Gehlot went to the proposed airport site in Shambhupura directly from the residence of MLA Bharat Singh.

He was accompanied by Minister Shanti Dhariwal, MLA Singh, District Collector OP Bunkar and UIT officials.

Gehlot visited the site in Shambhupura and spoke with the officials about the obstacles being faced over the airport land. They discussed about how much land has been given, how much land is in the forest department area, why the matter is stuck.

Gehlot told the officials that the land issue has been taken up, Om Birla is the MP of the area and also the Lok Sabha Speaker and the land issue is a trivial matter for him. I don't understand why four years have been taken, I had also talked to them, I will speak again.

There is a tussle between the state and the Centre over depositing the money for the airport land. Three years ago the state government gave consent for allotment of 500 hectares of land and orders were also issued. The UIT also transferred the land in its account to the Airport Authority. Under the diversion of the remaining forest department land, the UIT deposited the first instalment of Rs 21 crore 13 lakh with the forest department.

Now the airport issue is stuck due to the pending amount of Rs 106.34 crore. This money has to be paid to the forest department in lieu of diversion fee, two percent of the project cost and shifting of power grid lines. The state says that this amount should be given by the Centre, while the Centre says that the amount will have to be paid by the state government.