The plan for domestic airport of international standards at Dhalbhumgarh, around 70 km from city received a shot in the arm after Union Defence Ministry has given no-objection clearance to the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for the proposed domestic airport at Dhalbhumgarh in Ghatshila sub-division.
Jamshedpur BJP MP Bidyut Baran Mahto, on Wednesday informed that he spoke to Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha yesterday and he informed that Union Defence Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman said that the no objection letter has already been sent to the Ministry.
The defence coordination committee had in 2017 claimed to nearly 290 acres of land out of over 450 acres of land earmarked for Dhalbhumgarh airport, which they claimed to have acquired in 1942-44. However, based on the 1964 land survey of erstwhile Bihar government, it belonged to government.
Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials and state civil aviation unit officials had visited the World War-II era abandoned airstrip in Dhalbhumgarh in 2017 and after a technical survey for the proposed airport, out of which 3.28 acres is raiyyati land, 1.28 acres is uninhabited government land and the remaining forest land.
The MP further said that he had met Union Minister of civil aviation Suresh Prabhu in July and had received assurance that as soon as defence ministry objection is cleared the Airport Authority of India will start process of signing MoU with Jharkhand government, as it was done for Deogarh Airport in 2016.
The Government has zeroed on the World War-II era abandoned airstrip (nearly 2 km long).
On the other hand private operator Air Deccan has assured to start regular flight between Jamshedpur and Kolkata in February.
World War II era abandoned airfield in Chakulia, barely 70 km from Jamshedpur, was built by the British in the 1940s at an estimated cost of Rs 3 crore, and later used extensively during the 1962 war with China and the 1971 war with Pakistan for the liberation of Bangladesh is spread across an area of 515.44 acres.
