Bengal Aerotropolis Projects gets 2nd tranche of land for the Aerotroplis project from WBIDC

Kolkata/ New Delhi, January 4, 2010: Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL), the specialist company engaged in the development of Aerotropolis projects in the country, received second tranche of 515.33 acres of land for the proposed Aerotropolis project in Andal. With this, BAPL has received a total of 1049 acres of land which includes the requisite 650 acres for the airport, which is an integral part of the Aerotropolis project.

The second tranche of land was recently handed over to BAPL by West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) through a 99 years lease agreement signed between BAPL and WBIDC. The cumulative lease premium paid, so far, by BAPL is Rs 88,48,71,802/-

BAPL has already commenced site preparation work for the country's first privately owned airport. The airport is expected to have a passenger volume of approximately 4 lakh passengers. This passenger traffic in the region surrounding Durgapur in West Bengal is expected to grow by as much as 12% in the next few years.

During October 2009 WBIDC handed over the first tranche of 533.51 acres of land required for the project to BAPL. The integrated Aerotropolis project is spread over approximately 2300 acres of which the airport will be built on 650 acres of land. The airport is scheduled to be operational by late 2011.

Land acquisition process for the project commenced after a rehabilitation package that was determined by consensus with people's elected representatives. The unique and first of its kind rehabilitation package offers a land–for-land scheme to land givers. Besides this, the rehabilitation package also offers free vocational training at ITI, Durgapur to one eligible person from each land giver's family. Training at ITI commenced from 4th September 2009, and two batches consisting of 356 trainees are currently engaged in the program.

On receipt of the second tranche of land, Mr Subrata Paul, CEO, BAPL said: "We have already received approximately 1049 acres of land in two phases and have started site preparation work for the airport, which will be followed by extensive civil construction work."

He further added "We are expecting to receive the remaining portion of over 1000 acres of land within next few months."

The first of its kind private Greenfield Aerotropolis project is going to be developed in association with Singapore's Changi Airports International (CAI). The project will bring in socio-economic upliftment to the Asansol- Durgapur region and create the second metropolitan city in the region. This aims to attract about US$2.2 billion of investments and will be home to approximately 150,000 people and will generate over 40,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.

Source : Equity Bulls

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