The proposed airport in Dhalbhumgarh is likely to get a boost with the forest department clearing the 100 hectares of land for the project and deciding to send its recommendation for environment clearance to the Centre in the next three days.

A senior official in the divisional forest office (Jamshedpur) said they had already cleared the papers related to the environment clearance on forest land and they would be sent to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the next three days.

Dhalbhumgarh circle officer Sadanand Mahto said the land acquisition process for the airport project in Dhalbhumgarh was in a final stage.

“Getting environment clearance from the Centre is the only formality left for beginning the project. We expect the environment clearance will be obtained shortly,” the circle officer, who is handling the land acquisition process, said.

Mahto said the proposed airport would come up on a stretch of land that served as an airstrip during the British Rule.

“In the 1964 Survey Settlement, the land on which the Dhalbhumgarh airstrip existed was brought within the ambit of the forest department. We have to take both forest and environment clearance for the same land before the airport can be built by the state government,” Mahto added.

The circle officer said the airport was being set up in two phases for which officials from Airport Authority of India (AAI) visited Dhalbhumgarh in November last year.

“In the first phase, about 260 acres of land will be required for the project and bulk of it belongs to the forest department. Only 10 acres of government land will be used in the project in addition to the forest land,” Mahto added.

He said the state government had engaged a consultant for acquiring the forest land for the project in April this year.

The proposed airport will come up along the NH-33 in Ghatshila subdivision, around 60km from here.