JOIN USAfter scrapping the previous Mayawati government’s decision to set-up an international airport at Jewar in Greater Noida, the SP government has decided to build it at Mathura, about 120 kilometre from Delhi.
According to sources here, the district administration in Mathura has identified the land on which the airport could come up. Sources said a proposal on this has been sent to the government for consideration.
Soon after assuming office, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had grounded the ambitious Jewar airport proposal mooted by the Mayawati regime. The new regime had asked the civil aviation department to identify land for the airport in Agra or Mathura.
The proposal for the new airport was mooted to ease congestion at the Indira Gandhi International Airport at Delhi. The Union government was however opposed to idea of setting up the new airport at Jewar, which was very close to
Delhi.
Sources said that the Akhilesh regime felt that an airport at Mathura would be far more suitable for the large number of foreigners flocking the Taj city of Agra as well as the religious town of Mathura. The proposal could get full support of the union civil aviation minister Ajit Singh also as his son Jayant Chaudhary was member of Lok Sabha from Mathura.
The proposal for a second airport close to Delhi has been there for quite some time now. It was first mooted in 2001 but the real push came only when Mayawati became the chief minister in 2007. She tried hard to convince the centre to clear the project but it remained in limbo.
Given the cordial relations between the SP regime and the Congress-led UPA government, the officials now feel that the proposal will finally get the necessary clearance. The airport could also give a major fillip to the tourism sector in the state, they say.