Rajasthan to begin work on Rs 1,507 crore Kota-Bundi Greenfield Airport

The foundation stone of the Kota-Bundi Greenfield Airport will be laid on Saturday in Rajasthan’s Bundi district in the presence of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and civil aviation minister K Ram Mohan Naidu.

The ceremony will take place at the proposed airport site in Shambhupura in Bundi. During the same programme, the foundation stone will also be laid for the Naunera and Parwan-Akawad drinking water projects.

Several ministers and public representatives from the state are expected to attend the event. These include education minister Madan Dilawar and PHED minister Kanhaiya Lal Chaudhary.

Officials said the Kota-Bundi Greenfield Airport will be built at a cost of about Rs 1,507 crore. The airport is expected to handle around 1,000 passengers and will include a terminal building covering 20,000 square metres.

Plans for the airport include a runway measuring 3,200 metres in length and 45 metres in width. The facility will also have seven apron bays for parking A-321 category aircraft.

Meanwhile, former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the proposal for the Kota airport had been initiated during the previous Congress government in the state.

He said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had promised the people of Kota during a public meeting that an airport would be developed in the region. Gehlot said the Congress government had allotted 1,250 acres of land free of cost for the airport project in 2021 to fulfil that promise.

Gehlot also said that a budget of Rs 120 crore was sanctioned in 2022 for shifting power lines from the proposed airport site.

He claimed that the project had remained delayed for nearly four years because of the Centre’s slow pace of work and expressed hope that construction would now move forward quickly after the foundation-laying ceremony.

(With inputs from agencies)