Rough road: Gaya airport. Telegraph picture

The runway extension project of Gaya international airport has run into further rough weather.

The residents of Bishunganj, one of the four villages on the periphery of the airport, have refused to accept the compensation amount.

Gaya additional district magistrate Ramvilas Paswan, at present holding the charge of Gaya district magistrate (DM) in the absence of Bandana Preyashi, said: “An order has been passed to deposit the amount in the treasury.”

Following land acquisition department director Hukum Singh Meena’s directive, a compensation amount of Rs 9.54 crore for acquiring 60.14 acres at Bishunganj was deposited in the treasury.

Meena told The Telegraph over telephone: “The amount will just be transferred into the government account (treasury) from the department’s bank account. The option of paying compensation to the landowners through cheque is always open, provided the matter of fixing the rate of compensation is sorted out.”

According to an Airports Authority of India proposal, the length of the Gaya airport runway has to be extended to 9,000ft from the existing 7,500ft towards the western end.

The land acquisition department fixed up different rates of compensation for acquiring residential and agricultural land in Hario, Charova, Dubhal and Bishunganj villages for the project.

Gaya district land acquisition officer Prabhat Kumar Jha said: “A total of 28.81 acres, including 5.52 acres at Hario, 7.8 acres at Charova and 15.59 acres at Dubhal, has already been acquired and compensation of around Rs 7.79 crore, Rs 1.23 crore and Rs 4.07 crore respectively paid to the landowners.” The main hurdle in the extension of the runway remains 60.14 acres in Bishunganj village, towards the western end of the airport. Ranjit Kumar Verma, a farmer of Bishunganj, who would have to surrender 35 cottahs for the project, said: “The land in our village is very fertile and multi-crop.”