As the winter session of parliament begins and Kota MP Om Birla presides over the tallest chair in the House of the People, an unresolved question from his constituency looms large: when will Kota finally get its long-awaited airport?
Rajasthan’s Kota, a bustling education hub reportedly hosting over 200,000 students annually who prepare for the NEET, JEE and other competitive exams, continues to grapple with the glaring gap in its infrastructure even as its people have demanded the crucial facility for over 20 years.
The Wire filed RTI queries with the Union government and the Rajasthan government about the airport’s status. Although a greenfield airport has now been approved in Kota, an RTI response reveals that several approvals from the Union government were still pending as of two months ago.
Five of seven clearances, formalities pending in September: RTI
Commercial flights from Kota airport were halted in 1995 due to a decline in passenger traffic following an industrial recession in the area.
The demand for flights gained traction when the city emerged as an educational hub.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Birla promised to build an airport in the city. He declared he would not contest the next election if did not bring an airport to the constituency if elected.
He has won three successive elections since then, but according to RTI data received, five key approvals were pending as of September.
The Wire asked the Airports Authority of India (AAI) three questions: what mandatory clearances and related formalities are required for the completion of the Kota airport and who needs to approve them; how many approvals the Union and state governments have given and when; and how much land the Rajasthan government allocated for the airport and when.
The completion of the airport requires a total of seven mandatory clearances and formalities, according to the AAI’s RTI response dated September.
The AAI’s RTI response.
These include a no-objection certificate from the Ministry of Defence and a site clearance from the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to validate the proposed site.
Additionally, clearance from the Ministry of Home Affairs is required for security assessments.
Environmental considerations necessitate an environmental clearance from the Union environment ministry, which may include an environmental impact assessment, along with a forest clearance if land is diverted from forest areas.
Lastly, clearance from the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security as well as in-principle approval from the Steering Committee for Greenfield Airport are required to move forward with the project.
Of these seven approvals, the RTI response said only two were given that far – one from the Ministry of Defence on July 10, 2023 and a site clearance from the MoCA on August 1, 2024.
A regional newspaper reported earlier this month that the Union environment ministry had given its approval to build the new airport.
What has the Rajasthan government done on its part?
The AAI also requires land from the state government – the same became an issue during the 2023 Rajasthan elections when the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government campaigned for a second term in power.
The Wire in its RTI application asked for how much land the Rajasthan government allotted for the airport and when.
The AAI responded saying that 440 hectares of land were to be handed over by the Rajasthan government and that the same was awaited.
However, in mid-November, the state government provided 440 hectares of land to the AAI.
Union, Gehlot governments traded blame on airport
During the last Rajasthan assembly elections, the airport issue took centre stage in the Hadoti region in which Kota is located. Both former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Lok Sabha speaker Birla hail from the area. Birla, who is serving his second term as Lok Sabha speaker, has been Kota MP since 2014.
In September 2023, while inspecting the site of the new airport, Gehlot criticised Birla for the delay in building the airport and said that tourist inflow to Kota and the Hadoti region would only be possible with an airport in the area.
He claimed that Kota’s Urban Improvement Trust had transferred 34 hectares to the AAI for free and that a first instalment of Rs 21.13 crore for the diversion of forest land had also been released, but alleged that the Union government was dragging its feet on the project, PTI reported.
Gehlot also implied that Birla and the Union government may be behind “hurdles … being raised for forest land” with regard to the project. He said Birla ought to expedite the project, arguing that as speaker, he held significant influence to facilitate the necessary regulatory changes.
In a response to Gehlot two days later, Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia blamed the state government for not allocating the remainder of the 440 hectares of land “in spite of several reminders” from the Union government.
An RTI response to The Wire from the Airport Authority Kota in September said the Rajasthan government released 33.4 hectares of land for the new airport and that the approval of the “forest department” was needed for the project.
Rajasthan’s RTI reply.
A Rajasthan government official who wished to remain unnamed said that the Gehlot government released the 33.4 hectares and that the reason why the remainder of the land was not allocated to the AAI was delays on behalf of the “forest department”. The Wire was unable to corroborate their claim.
Many students who flock to Kota to prepare for entrance exams travel from distant regions, relying on long journeys through Delhi, Jaipur or Udaipur due to the absence of a regular airport in the city.
Jaipur, located 250 kilometres away, has the nearest airport, creating logistical challenges for the thousands of students arriving annually.
According to The Hindu, a significant portion of students studying in Kota’s coaching centres were from Bihar (32%), Uttar Pradesh (23%), Rajasthan (18%) and Madhya Pradesh (11%).
The lack of an airport was particularly evident during the COVID-19 pandemic when states had to send buses to retrieve their students. The Assam government dispatched buses to bring back 391 students over a 2,000-kilometre road journey in 2020.
‘Why has Birla failed to secure approval for the airport even as speaker?’
Former Kota North MLA Prahlad Gunjal, who joined the Congress after leaving the BJP and unsuccessfully contested the general elections from Kota earlier this year on a Congress ticket, insisted that Birla resign for failing to deliver on his promise for an airport even after serving two full terms as MP and one term as Lok Sabha speaker.
Speaking to The Wire, he said, “I saw the budgets of the Union government for 2022-23 and 2023-24, both of which included announcements for airports in various cities. Unfortunately, Kota’s name was missing.”
He further challenged Birla, asking, “Even as speaker, why has he failed to secure approval for a modest airport budget of Rs 100-150 crore for the people of Kota?”
“If the Congress comes to power, the airport will be announced in its first budget. In Rajasthan, it’s not a matter of a double engine; it’s a failure of both governments,” he added.
The entrance to Kota’s old airport as seen in late 2022. Photo: Google Street View.
During Vasundhara Raje’s second term as chief minister and with Narendra Modi as Prime Minister – a period referred to as the first ‘double-engine government’ in the state – petitions were filed to commence air services from Kota’s existing airport.
However, Raje’s government focused on developing the Kolana airport in Jhalawar, her stronghold. Raje has been the MLA from Jhalrapatan, a constituency in Jhalawar, since 2003.
Reports also emerged about an ambitious international airport project in Jhalawar, while Kota’s airport remained neglected. Frustrated residents of Kota filed multiple online petitions urging the Rajasthan government to build an airport in Kota and not in Jhalawar.
The old airport, located in the heart of Kota city, is now used only in emergencies. Its land being too small to accommodate multiple flights, its proximity to major hospitals in the city and its potential to create traffic problems due to its central location are some of the reasons why officials are looking to construct the new airport elsewhere.