TAKING A DECISION: Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Govind Karjol and V.P. Baligar, Secretary to Government, Department of Infrastructure, viewing the sitemap of the proposed airstrip at Buranpur near Bijapur on Friday.

BIJAPUR: The proposal to develop the airstrip at Buranpur village 10 km from here was cleared on Friday with V.P. Baligar, Secretary to Government, Department of Infrastructure, giving the green signal. Mr. Baligar visited Buranpur along with Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Govind Karjol and expressed satisfaction about the location.

With this the uncertainty over the land is over. Earlier, land near Sholapur Road at Arkeri, 12 km from here, was being considered. However, owing to technical feasibility, the land at Buranpur was preferred to that in Arkeri. Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mohsin said the government land available at Buranpur was 457 acres. Mr. Baligar asked Mr. Mohsin to transfer the land to the Airports Authority of India and the latter said the process was under way.

Mr. Baligar said the land was enough for airstrip but keeping in view future expansion plans, another 500-acre land had to be acquired. He asked the department officials to get an area map readied from Geographical Survey of India. Mr. Karjol asked Mr. Mohsin to send a proposal to Government seeking Rs. 1 crore to start the land acquisition process. Speaking to presspersons, Mr. Karjol and Mr. Baligar said Rs. 20 crore had been earmarked for development of airstrips at Bijapur and Gulbarga. There was no dearth of funds for land acquisition and whatever amount was needed for the purpose would be released without any delay. Work at the field level would start in January, he added.

Referring to the Sholapur-Gadag broadgauge conversion project that is being jointly commissioned by South Western Railway (SWR) and the State Government, Mr. Baligar said Rs. 20 crore had been released to SWR. According to the present calculation, the State had to give Rs. 9 crore, and that could be made available as soon as the SWR put an indent. Broadgauge was ready on the Sholapur-Bagalkot section and trains were running. The SWR had informed that work on the Bagalkot-Gadag section would be taken up by next October. However, the line would be through only by March 2008.

On the proposal to fill minor irrigation tanks by pumping water from the Krishna and the Bhima Mr. Karjol said the work would start from January as it was stated earlier.

He said the Central Planning Commission had evinced interest to include such programmes in the coming plan across the nation. It had asked the State to provide a model plan on tank filling.

The State was expecting some assistance from the Centre in the tank-filling project, he added.

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