Jamshedpur, March 28: Jamshedpur MP Bidyut Baran Mahato raised the issue of Dhalbhumgarh Airport in the Lok Sabha while raising question under Rule 377.
Bidyut Baran Mahato informed the House that Jamshedpur is famous as industrial house and big entrepreneurs like Tata are established and also MSME sector is established in Adityapur and about two thousand industries including small and big industries are established in MSME and automobile sector and there is also a huge area of mines here.
He informed that Central Government had approved the construction of Dhalbhumgarh Airport located here and the Airport Authority of India has also allocated about Rs 100 Crore and foundation stone was laid in 2019. But the work of the said airport has not yet begun due to not issuance of no objection clearance from forest department.
He also informed that he had raised the question at Lok Sabha in February this year and received a reply from Union minister of state for civil aviation Dr V.K Singh which informed that environment Appraisal Committee observed that the proposed site falls in forests which are abode to a large number of elephants and are known as elephant corridors. In the meeting dated 25.9.2020 it was concluded that the proposed site is not suitable for the development of the airport and the committee was not in agreement with the present site selection and the project proposal has been asked to find an alternate site.
Bidyut Mahato said that the local people have not seen a single elephant till date and expressed ignorance about the visit of the selection committee.
The MP said that National Highway is 500 meters away from the said place and railway line is 100 meters away. He urged that the construction of Dhalbhumgarh Airport should be started so that Jharkhand, Kharagpur, Midnapore, Jhargram of West Bengal and parts of Odisha are also benefited.