Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL) has been forced to shrink the size of its planned 2,300-acre airport city at Andal in the industrial belt of the Asansol-Durgapur region of West Bengal.
The West Bengal government has refused to acquire the remaining 144 acres needed to complete the airport city, because its rules state it is unable to acquire land for industrial projects.
The West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) - which has entered into an agreement with BAPL to facilitate development, including the acquisition of the project land - has also decided against acquiring the additional land, so the total size of the $2.3bn airport city project will now be reduced to 2156 acres.
So far, WBIDC has acquired and handed over 1,818 acres of land to BAPL for the project.
The developers are expecting to get the remaining 338 acres in the next few months.
Subrata Paul, chief executive officer of BAPL, said: "Currently we have about 1818 acres. The problem was with 144 acres which needed to be freshly acquired.
"But, we will be getting remaining land of about 338 acres in another two or three months as this is already in the process of acquisition."
BAPL added that the changes would have no affect on the construction of the airport which will go ahead as planned.
Paul said: "This 144 acres was part of the township. The 650 acres needed for the airport is intact. We are confident of making the airport operational by September 2012."
