Air services from Ayodhya I'ntl airport expected to start early next year

After the Central government's nod for an international airport in Ayodhya, the construction work for the project is on full swing and air services are expected to start early next year, according to a state government official.

This comes ahead of the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

On November 9, 2019, a five-judge of the Supreme Court bench led by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi ruled in favour of Ram Lalla and said that the entire disputed land spread over 2.7 acres will be handed over to a trust formed by the government, which will monitor the construction of a Ram Temple at the site.

In February 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the constitution of Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra, to oversee the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya.On August 5, 2020, PM Modi performed the Bhoomi puja for the construction of the Ram Temple.

Recently, the Central government has disbursed Rs 250 Crore and the State government has also allocated a sum of Rs 1000 Crore for the construction of an international airport in Ayodhya.

The state government has approved a total amount of Rs 1001 crore 77 lakh to purchase 555.66 acres of land for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's dream project Maryada Purushottam Shri Ram Airport in Ayodhya.

Apart from this, a separate provision of 100 million rupees has been made for Ayodhya Airport in the next financial year 2020-21. So far, an amount of 9,47.91 crore has been released by the state government to purchase the land. 377 acres of land has also been made available to the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for the development of the airport so far.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath started planning a strategy for the all-round development of Ayodhya after coming to power. He instructed to work out an action plan for the international level air connectivity of Ayodhya, including the airport, and other necessary facilities.

The central government also selected the Ayodhya airstrip on October 4, 2018 for the Ayodhya-Hindon air route under the Regional Connectivity Scheme of the Government of India.

On November 6, 2018, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minster had announced the development of an airstrip at Ayodhya for large aircrafts such as A 320 and B 737, construction of suitable runway and terminal building. Later, in order to develop an international airport in Ayodhya, the Chief Minister modifying his earlier announcement ordered to develop the airport for Code-E B777-300 type aircrafts.

An MoU was signed on February 24, 2014 between the state government and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) for the operation of civilian air services from the state airstrip in Ayodhya.

At that time there was Congress at the centre and Samajawadi Party government in the state and the entire area of the runway was 177 acres and the runway size (length and width) was 1500 meters X 45 meters, but the project remained unimplemented.

( With inputs from ANI )