One of the towers of the regional grid near the airport. (Surajit Roy)

Malda, April 7: The West Bengal State Electricity Transmission Company Limited and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) are at war over the construction of a 132 KV line of a regional grid near the airport here.

While the AAI has sent a letter to the Bengal power department to stop erecting towers around the airport, the electricity company said supply to North and South Dinajpur would be in jeopardy if the work was stopped midway.

The civil aviation ministry is keen on resuming commercial flights to Malda and had submitted a Rs 29-crore revival plan to the Centre in 2003. Five years later, the project is yet to take off.

The chief engineer of the electricity company, Asit Mishra, said the Rs 43-crore project was started in December 2005, with loans from the Rural Electrification Corporation of the Union power ministry, for Malda and the two Dinajpurs. The loan was given on condition that work would be completed within two years.

“We are already trailing behind. The regional north-east grid will be connected to the national grid in Orissa. The corridor is expected to mitigate power problems in the three districts of north Bengal,” Mishra said. He, however, added that the work on the tower closest to the airport has been temporarily suspended.

“But if a 3km radius from the runway has to be kept a free zone, as desired by the AAI, we have to remove many more towers. There is a 132 KV substation within the 6km radius. If we have to relocate all the infrastructure, we shall need several crores of rupees. In that case, it is better that the airport is shifted,” said Mishra.

District secretary of the West Bengal Electricity Workers’ Union Dilip Hore said he had written to the chairman of the company, Malay Dey, urging him to intervene so that the “power corridor is not disturbed”.

Hore added that the workers were not opposed to air travel from Malda, but “electricity was an essential need of the society”. A copy of the letter has also been sent to power minister Mrinal Banerjee.

“If the AAI is willing to compensate for the money spent on the project so far and arrange for land at an alternative site, only then can the set-up be relocated,” the minister said.

The officer-in-charge of the AAI in Malda, Chandra Shekhar, said he had “no other option” but to ask the power department to stop erecting towers with high-tension lines for the safety of flights.

During a joint inspection with the power department officials on January 24 and 25, the AAI had tried to explain the situation, Chandra Shekhar said.