'PM surprised over delay in giving airport for MIHAN'

NAGPUR: Union Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources Vilas Muttemwar has said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was 'surprised' over the delay in transfer of the city airport for the Multi-Modal International Air Passenger and Cargo  Hub at Nagpur (MIHAN) project here.

'' The Prime Minister expressed surprise when I told him that the transfer, vital for the project, had been pending for several months now,'' Muttemwar told here on Saturday night. ''I brought the situation to PM's notice when I met him during his visit to Mumbai last week,'' he said.

The Prime Minister had not given any assurance, Muttemwar said, but added that he was hopeful something positive would come out. He had to bring the issue to PM's notice as it was not clear whether the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) was serious at all about the transfer of the Nagpur airport for MIHAN, he further said.

Muttemwar, who has elected to the Lok Sabha from Nagpur, expressed surprise at the stand taken by MoCA that no time frame could be set for the transfer of the airport. The ministry took the stand in an affidavit that it filed before the High Court here, which is hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) over the issue.

The Nagpur airport is to be handed over to a joint venture company with equity participation from the Government of Maharashtra and  Airport Authority of India (AAI) to be developed as part of MIHAN.