New Delhi: The first Heliport in the National Capital region (NCR) is slated to come up in Delhi very soon, but the decision on exact location where the Heliport will come up is still hanging.

The government is keen to build a Heliport as close to the Commonwealth Games village site as possible and wanted to build it on the Yamuna bed close to the Akshardam temple, the closest site. But this has been vehemently opposed by the various environmentalists groups and coming up of a Heliport at this site seems a remote possibility.

The idea of building a Heliport is mooted by Pawan Hans Helicopter limited which originally short listed two sites for it, the first at Akshardam and other at the other side of the Nizamuddin Bridge near Mayur Vihar -1 and also sent a formal proposal to DDA (Delhi Development Authority) for acquiring the land.

The civil aviation ministry despite the opposition is keen to build the Heliport in Delhi and close to the Commonwealth Games site, the UP government has offered alternative site at Noida, the next nearest site.

According to Mr. Ashok Chawla, Secretary Civil Aviation, a Heliport requires almost 20-25 acres of land to be built and not enough land is available on the proposed sites, though Noida has offered land for the project but the ministry is keen to build the first Helipad in Delhi near the Commonwealth Games site. The ministry has planned to build more heliports in the NCR region later on to improve connectivity. According to Mr. Chawla more sites are being short listed in Delhi.

But according the ministry sources, the plan to build heliport at Akshardam has run into rough weather due to opposition by the environmentalist groups and not because of lack of land.

The heliport project has been approved by almost all committees and is pending final approval by the expenditure finance committee.

According to PHHL the heliport will require 40 acres of land to be built, which will include a hangar, departure and arrival terminals and a runway and it will take about six months to construct it.