Encroachment Adjacent to Bokaro Airport 'Doubles' Despite Several

Kabul Airport Blast: At Least 60 Killed Including Children, Soldiers JNS: At least 60 people, including children and US Soldiers, were killed when two explosions struck within a dense crowd outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul at Afghanistan on Thursday evening. The explosions took place near the Kabul airport amid a massive evacuation effort by Western countries. United States’ Department of Defense spokesperson John Kirby confirmed that the first blast took place near the Abbey Gate of the airport. About 30 minutes later, he confirmed another explosion near Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. He added that the attack resulted in a number of US and civilian casualties. The explosion came hours after the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom issued three separate warnings about a threat of an attack by an affiliate of terrorist group Islamic State at the Kabul airport. Diplomatic and foreign offices of the three countries had urged people to evacuate the airport. The warnings also came as NATO allies, including Poland and Belgium, ended their evacuation efforts ahead of an August 31 deadline for the US troops to exit Afghanistan. Several countries urged people to avoid the airport earlier in the day, with one saying there was a threat of a suicide bombing. But just days before the evacuation effort ends, few appeared to heed the call. Already, some countries have ended their evacuations and begun to withdraw their soldiers and diplomats, signaling the beginning of the end of one of history’s largest airlifts. The Taliban have pledged not to attack Western forces during the evacuation, but insist the foreign troops must be out by America’s self-imposed deadline of August 31. Encroachment Adjacent To Bokaro Airport ‘Doubles’ Despite Several Eviction Drives Ashis Sinha I Bokaro:Illegal encroachments adjacent to the Bokaro Airport have almost doubled despite several eviction drives conducted during the past. It also puts a halt in the expansion work of the airport and a significant hurdle on the way to start operations of the airport. The task of evacuating illegally occupied land has become entangled in a political tug of war. Bokaro Steel Plant management and district administration kept their fingers crossed on the issue. Bokaro is to be connected to the RCS (Regional Connectivity Scheme) under the Government of India’s flagship scheme UDAN. The foundation stone for the development of Bokaro airport at Bokaro Steel City was laid on 25 August 2018, but due to several hurdles and political tug of war, the expansion activity got delayed. Unauthorised slum adjacent to Bokaro airport boundary wall puts a halt on the expansion and development work. People residing in those slums have broken the newly constructed boundary wall three times earlier, and now they have made a big hole in the wall to use the inside area for open defecation as well for grazing of their pets, said a contract worker at expansion work. Earlier in 2019, over 400 houses along with Khatals were there at those unauthorised slums, now the number of encroachers has almost doubled, said Santosh Kumar a social activist. Ahead of the expansion of the airport, Bokaro Steel Plant management along with the district administration issued an eviction order, and on 12 December 2018 over 60 per cent of the encroachers vacated the area along with their goods, valuables and left their temporary structures to remain as the district administration warned them to clear the area otherwise they will use brute force to vacate the site. But the district administration did not move that day to demolish those temporary structures. Later in the night, all of them again returned into their premises and started residing there. After that, the issue entangled into political war as Lok sabha and Assembly elections were announced and in view to utilize the evicted residents as vote banks, political leaders started supporting them in continuing their possessions. “We along with few prominent political party leaders, supported them and asked the encroachers not to vacate their possession,” admitted Rakesh, Spokesperson of AAP. “As landing of small-medium size airplanes, did not require such expansion of runway we were not forced to leave the slums,” added Rakesh. Notably, earlier in June 2011 more than 200 houses of the said slum were demolished by a joint team of BSL and the district administration, but again the slum flourished. At that time, on the high court directive, BSL has passed an eviction order against those houses that had come up illegally in the locality, and demolition drives were conducted in the presence of police personnel and magistrate. However, the people who had been living in the slum vacated the premises without protest. Admitting the illegal houses that come up in the area are creating problems for expansion of the airport; ‘all-out efforts would be made to make the areas encroachments free,’ said a district administration official. Ranchi Gets New Flights To Three Cities # Bokaro to get air connectivity in next 6-8 months RNS/Ranchi: In a major relief to the people of the State, the Union Civil Aviation Ministry along with the State Government facilitated new flight services to three State Capitals –Raipur, Bhubaneswar and Kolkata on Friday. Alliance Air service flight from Ranchi to Raipur was flagged off by Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Urban Development Minister CP Singh and Ranchi MP Ram Tahal Choudhary on Friday under the regional connectivity scheme of Central Government, from Birsa Munda International Airport, Ranchi. Alliance Air will commence flight operations between Ranchi and Bhubaneshwar on Saturday, while the flight services between Ranchi and Kolkata began from today itself. The flight will be operated daily and will take off from Ranchi at 03:45 pm and will land at Raipur at 05: 20 pm. In its return journey, it will take off at Raipur at 05:50 pm and will land at Ranch at 07:15 pm. For Ranchi-Kolkata route the flight will take off from Kolkata at 05:50 am and will land at Ranchi at 07:25 am. In its return it will take off at Ranchi 07:45 pm and will land at Kolkata at 09:00 pm. For the Ranchi – Bhubaneswar service the flight will take off from Ranchi at 07:50 am and will land at Bhubaneswar at 08:50 am. In its return journey it will take off from Bhubaneshwar at 02:00 pm and will land at Ranchi at 03:15 pm. Addressing a press conference after the flag off, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha said, “Since 2014, the passenger traffic growth at Ranchi Airport has been grown more than fourfold. The number of passengers has grown from six lakh in 2014 to 27.2 lakh in 2018. The numbers of scheduled flight have increased from 11 per day in 2014 to 27 per day in 2018. New destinations such as Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, and Raipur have been added to Ranchi since 2014. New Airlines such as Alliance Air, Air Asia and Air Vistara have started operations during the last four years.” “In near future, Bokaro Airport will be operational and Bokaro to Kolkata flight will be started in six to eight months,” he added. “The State Government has entered into an agreement with Airport Authority of India (AAI) and DRDO for construction of Deoghar Airport for which foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 25 of this year. The State Government has identified the cities for development of the airport at Dalbhumgarh, Hazaribagh, Daltonganj, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Dumka. It is proposed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the State Government and AAI for establishing a joint venture for construction and operation for these airports. The proposed venture is to be formed with the equity ratio of 51 each to 49 between AAI and the State Government. The obligations and responsibility of the parties will be clearly stipulated under the MoU,” he further said. Informing about future plans, Sinha said, “Under UDAN-1, the route Jamshedpur to Kolkata was offered for bidding and was awarded to Deccan Charters Private Limited. Under UDAAN-2, the route Bokaro to Kolkata was offered for bidding and awarded to Spicejet and Airline Allied Services Limited and the route Bokaro to Patna, Dumka to Kolkata, Dumka to Ranchi were also offered for bidding and awarded to Airline Allied Services Limited.”.

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