Till date no proposal to construct Greenfield Airport in Cachar has been received, clarifies Jyotiraditya Scindia

June 8: Amid the controversy regarding setting up of a Greenfield Airport at Doloo Tea Estate in Cachar district of Assam, TMC MP Sushmita Dev wrote a letter to Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation on 24 May, 2022, wherein she sought clarification as whether the Ministry has sanctioned the construction of such an Airport. In response to the letter, Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia on 8 June, 2022 replied that till date, no proposal as per GFA Policy, 2008 to construct a Greenfield airport in Cachar District of Assam has been received in the Ministry. It needs mention here that a similar reply was also given by the Ministry in response to an RTI query on 31 May, 2022.

In her letter to the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Sushmita Dev asked two basic questions:

1. Is there a sanction (in principle or otherwise) of an International Airport in the district of Cachar, Assam ?
2. Is there any timeline for starting the project and if sanctioned, its completion thereof?

In response to the letter written by MP Sushmita Dev, Union Minister of Civil Aviation- Jyotiraditya M. Scindia wrote, “Kindly refer to your letter dated 24 May, 2022 regarding the development of a Greenfield Airport in Cachar District of Assam. I would like to inform you that Government of India (Gol) has formulated a Greenfield Airports (GFA) Policy, 2008 under which an airport developer or the respective State Government willing to establish a Greenfield airport is required to send a proposal to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) in the prescribed format available at www.civilaviation.gov.in for 2-stage process i.e., ‘Site Clearance’ followed by ‘In-Principle’ approval.”

I wrote to the Civil Aviation Minister GOI about clarifying the position about the sanction of a greenfield project and his reply says there is no such proposal.

Imagine ripping through the tea plantation and evicting those helpless workers in Dolu with 200 excavators. pic.twitter.com/LPbMdftgfY

— Sushmita Dev সুস্মিতা দেব (@SushmitaDevAITC) June 8, 2022

Saying so, the Union Civil Aviation Minister further clarified, “Till date, no proposal as per GFA Policy, 2008 to construct a Greenfield airport in Cachar District of Assam has been received in the Ministry. However, if any such proposal from any Airport Developer or the State Government is received, the same would be considered as per the Greenfield airports Policy, 2008.”

On being asked, BJP leader and formr MLA Rajdeep Goala said, “I have seen the letter issued by Hon’ble Minister Scindiaji. This version of the Minister is same as that of the RTI response of his Ministry given on 31 May, 2022. It has been said that the state govt has not send the proposal in prescribed format. However, the fact of the matter is that before sending the proposal in prescribed format, we need to do the site clearance of the proposed land and acquire it.”

“On one hand, the opposition is creating hurdles in the process of land acquisition by instigating the tea workers and on the other hand, by displaying such letters, they are creating confusion among the people that there exists no such proposal! These people don’t want an airport at Silchar or in other words do not want that our valley should develop and so are spreading all sorts of confusion on this issue of Greenfield Airport. Their only aim is to block this project,” added Rajdeep Goala.

When asked what will happen if the proposal is rejected by the Civil Aviation Ministry once this is sent in official prescribed format, Rajdeep Goala replied, “It will not be cancelled. If the state govt has taken this step and has made a lot of progress into the matter, then I am confident that it has discussed the matter already with the concerned Union Minister. So there arises no question of the proposal being cancelled. Why are we being so pessimistic?”