Satellite airport project rolls

Patna district magistrate (DM) Sanjay Kumar Agarwal on Thursday inspected land earmarked for construction of the Rs 500crore new airport in Bihta's Vishambharpur and Kutlupur areas and met the plot owners.

"The land will be acquired under the Bihar Land Acquisition Act, 2013. While 98.99 acres will be acquired in Vishambharpur from 373 landholders, 27 acres will be acquired from 114 landowners in Kutlupur," said the DM, before adding: "The owners of the land will be provided compensation four times that of the minimum value rate (MVR)."

MVR is defined as the base rate for fixing stamp duty of a property in a particular location.

The state government has earmarked a total of Rs 270 crore to be spent on land acquisition for Bihta airport, work on which will start by the year-end.

During his meeting with the landholders, Agarwal informed them that a special cell has been formed to look after the acquisition process and a help desk has also been set up so that they do not face any difficulty in getting the compensation amount. The DM said compensation will be provided on first come-first serve basis and will be completed within three months.

Agarwal assured the land owners that transparency would be maintained in the acquisition process and that there would be no hassle for them in getting the compensatory amount.

Meanwhile, a few land owners complained to the DM that their names in the notification issued earlier by the state government were incorrect. Agarwal directed them to lodge their complaints with all the relevant documents with the circle officer or the district land-acquisition office and told them that they will get their compensation only after the names are corrected.

The DM then directed the circle officer to dispose all such cases where names are found wrong in the notification within seven days of receipt of the complaint.

Agarwal also directed the circle officer to ensure issuance of last payment receipt to the land holders at the earliest. He ordered the revenue officers of Vishambharpur and Kutlupur to issue revenue receipts to the land owners on a priority basis, failing which action will be taken against both the officers.