The State Government has asked the district administration to identify 70 acre of levelled, private land for establishing mini airport in Kodagu district. The order comes in wake of rejection of four to five government land shown to Airport Authority of India to establish the proposed airport. With this development, the dreams of the people of having a mini airport has not withered away yet. Urban Infrastructure Development Under Secretary K S Venugopal in his letter dated August 17, 2010 has asked the district administration to identify suitable land for the establishment of the mini airport and the Tahshildars of three taluks will have to take up the responsibility of identifying suitable land for this purpose, said Deputy Commissioner K H Ashwathnarayana Gowda. Earlier District administration had sent a proposal to the government after identifying some government land at Byadagotta (118.75 acre), Bettadalli (54 acre), Shanthalli (64 acre), Araga (140 acre) and Madapura (250 acre) in Somwarpet for building mini airport. However, the plots were rejected by the AAI on technical grounds. There was no complication in building the airport on this land but since all the said land were seen unfit for landing of the aircraft, the lands were rejected. Since the Government is facing lots of problem in acquiring private land for mini airport in Bellary due to opposition from farmers, identifying private land and acquiring it has become a headache for the Government. Though from an outset Somwarpet is said to be apt area for building airport because of less density of forest and levelled terrain, the problem that district administration can possibly encounter is the challenge of getting 70 acre land together as there are small and medium land holders predominantly in the region. It may be recalled that Government had once decided to establish mini airport at Kodagu-Mysore border area because it could not find proper land to build mini airport in Kodagu. However, then there was no follow up on the same. Now that the Government is showing interest in having a mini airport in the region, one may have to wait and watch as to what the response of the people will be.