By IANS
New Delhi : The ministry of civil aviation Wednesday said it has put the Rs.3.5 billion airport project at Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh on fast track and the in-principle approval of the central government would be granted in three months.
Soon after Mayawati became the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh in May, she had sought the central government's approval for the airport – one of her electoral promises. She had placed her proposal before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when she met him in May.
The proposal for the airport project was first received by the ministry from the state government in 2001 and technical approval for the selected site was conveyed to the ministry in 2003.
The proposed site, identified for the construction of the Taj International Aviation Hub by Uttar Pradesh is 72 km from Delhi and 120 km from Agra. Approximately 1,500 hectares of land had been identified for the construction.
The Taj Expressway Authority will sponsor the project and the land acquisition will be done in accordance with the policy of the state government.
The structure to be adopted will be that of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as joint venture with a private party selected through a competitive bidding process.
While the private party will bid for 74 percent, the Uttar Pradesh government and central government agencies such as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) will bid for 13 percent each.