Let Jewar’s loss be Mathura’s gain: Ajit to Akhilesh

In a letter written to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav,Singh has “welcomed” the UP government’s decision to dump Jewar in Greater Noida — chosen by former chief minister Mayawati — as airport site,and asked it to send to his ministry a proposal for a greenfield international airport at Mathura.

“I assure you that we will treat it as top priority and put it on fast track to fulfill the aspirations of the area and its people,” Singh said in the letter sent last week.

Incidentally,Mathura is part of the home turf of Ajit Singh and his Rashtriya Lok Dal,and his son Jayant Chaudhary currently the RLD MP from Mathura Lok Sabha constituency.

Singh said that his ministry had learnt of the UP government’s plan to replace the idea of the airport at Jewar with one near Agra from newspaper reports,facts subsequently confirmed by UP government officials.

Earlier,a Group of Ministers examining the Jewar proposal had asked the ministry to appoint an independent consultant to study traffic projections made by the previous government. “The report submitted by the consultants had stated that the projections were grossly overstated,” a senior ministry official said.

In his letter,Singh referred to issues related to traffic growth,and the fact that Jewar was within 150 km of Delhi airport — issues that have remained unresolved for the last five years. The existing greenfield airport policy bars a new airport within 150 km of an existing airport.

Singh has recommended Mathura as a site with easy access to the Yamuna Expressway. He has also said that “the airport of Taj International Aviation Hub should be located near to Taj in such a way so that there is no air space conflict with the IAF airport at Agra and likelihood of any legal/policy issues is also ruled out”.

The proposal for an airport in the region is also linked to commensurate benefits in terms of greater development in the catchment areas.