Ranchi, Oct. 6: Over 400 acres of land has been acquired for a proposed airport in Deoghar, the ambitious project requiring 600 acres in all.

Chief secretary Rajbala Verma, who chaired a meeting today to review progress of infrastructure projects, including railway lines, discussed the acquisition with senior officials like land reforms and registration department secretary K.K. Soan, director (land acquisition) Rajeev Ranjan and others.

"For the Deoghar airport project we have already completed the process of acquisition of 407.10 acres that includes private and government plots," said a senior official.

The land will be transferred to Airports Authority of India.

The new railway lines, for which 4,363.172 acres have been acquired over the last couple of years, include Tori-Shivpur, Ranchi-Barkakana-Hazaribagh-Koderma, Koderma-Tilaiya and Giridih-Koderma. Land acquisition is still on for other rail links, including Godda-Hansdiha, Pirpainti-Jasidih, Deoghar-Dumka and Dumka-Rampurhat.

Verma asked officials to expedite the land acquisition process to ensure timely completion of these projects.

Later, during an interaction with deputy commissioners through video-conferencing, Verma said that the new land acquisition act should be the basis of compensation to be paid to private owners who part with land for various projects.

"We must ensure better coordination with local residents and if needed, deputy commissioners would have to go to the field to hear about people's problems," she said while issuing directives that assume significance in the light of the ongoing agitation against an NTPC project at Barkagaon where four persons were killed in police firing recently.