Malkangiri to get airstrip soon

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Government is now in process to finalise a project for building an airstrip in Malkangiri district.

As per the initial plan, the district administration is planning to set up an airstrip on 13.233 hectare land for which the authorities are looking for a suitable patch of land.

Earlier, Executive Engineer of Public Works Department, Malkangiri, had written to the district collector for acquisition of 13.233 hectare land for the project following which the district administration approached the Deputy Director General of forests, the Ministry of Environment & Forests.

As per the source in the development, the district administration is planning to launch a massive afforestation drive for the project as part of compensation for using forest land for the commercial purpose.

Since the forest land will be acquired for the proposed airstrip project, the local tehsildar has been asked to identify land for afforestation on 26.466 acre land towards compensation. The project is likely to get a nod after identification of suitable forest land, which will be converted to the commercial land.

As per the order by the district collector, the tehsildar had identified a forest land for the project. However, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) rejected it for the infrastructure project.