Rs 311 cr UP airstrip being used to learn car driving

With no aircraft movement in the last two years, this 311 crore airstrip constructed in 2017 in Marhamtabad village of Maitha sub-division is being used by motor training schools and individuals to learn car driving, a report in the Hindustan Times said.

A high-flying idea has come down crashing in Kanpur Dehat, the report said.

Neeraj Yadav, village headman, Marhatabad, said the entire place was unguarded and people get inside the main entrance that remained open day in day out.

The airstrip, mooted by the then Samajwadi Party government in 2014, is 3 Km long and 450 metres wide.

The land was acquired from the villagers after getting approval from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation. A Haryana-based company bagged the contract for the project.

Prashant Awasthi, a Shivli-based driver who helps people learn driving, said the size of the place makes it an attraction for people.

One motor training school charges apparently charges Rs 500 extra if one wants to learn driving on the airstrip.

So far, only the runway and the boundary wall has been built and the state has not released the budget for the air traffic control, guest house, inspection house and so on. Unless the ATC is not in place, the airstrip cannot be made operational.

The airstrip required air network, a control room, an administrative building, a guest house and staff quarters to be ready for use, the officer-in-charge of the airstrip SP Lal told the Hindustan Times.

Senior district administration officials refused to comment on the issue.

A senior officer of the aviation department, who did not wish to be named, said the previous government had planned to allot various airstrips lying abandoned in the state to private flying clubs so that they could look after its maintenance but the scheme could not materialise.