Tripura News
Tripura govt. to ready additional land for airport extension work: Govt. seeks formal requisation from MoCA
Jayanta K Das
PHOTO : Agartala Airport. TIWN
AGARTALA, February 13 (TIWN):Tripura Govt. is working on additional land (4 acres) availability for the Agartala airport extension work, however with the inordinate delay of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) keeps the extension of Agartala airport uncertain. Talking to TIWN, Transport Secretary Samarjit Bhowmik said that the State Govt, has recently urged the Ministry of Civil Aviation to place a formal requisition for taking up another 4 acres of additional land for the airport extension work. Bhowmik also expressed his displeasure over no response of the Civil Aviation Ministry in regard of laying the foundation stone for the project work. Tripura govt. earlier sent an invitation to the Ministry of Civil Aviation Govt. of India to lay the foundation stone of the airport expansion work on February.
Earlier a high level official of Tripura Transport department said that an invitation was sent to Civil Aviation Ministry for laying the foundation stone of Agartala airport extension work on the month of February, but today talking to TIWN Transport Secretary Samarjit Bhowmik expressed his displeasure over the negligence of the Ministry in this regard.“Till now we have not received any reply to our invitation for laying the foundation stone of Agartala airport extension project work”, said Bhowmik. Ministry of Civil Aviation has been seeking for an additional land for the car parking and other facilities as part of the extension of the Agartala airport, while the state govt. has already given them 72 acres of land amongst which 10.6 acres of land for the construction of the Terminal building during the first phase and 62 acres of land for the construction of Runway Street.
Mr. Bhowmik earlier said that he held a meeting with the Director of the AAI and requested to start work without further delay and start the commissioning work of the project of the extension of the Agartala airport soon. The environmental clearance report has not been made so far and the Ministry of Civil Aviation has already wasted much period of time on the commissioning of the project work, Bhowmik said.
According to the official the Ministry of Civil Aviation has made a major delay in preparing the environmental clearance report. The report has not been framed till date. Therefore it will take another 6 to 8 months for framing the EC report, said the official.
Agartala airport is the second busiest in the northeast region after Guwahati airport in Assam. At least 22 flights operate to and from Agartala every day, carrying about 2,700 passengers.Agartala airport would be the third international standard airport after the Guwahati and Imphal airports. Imphal's Tulihal airport was recently declared as an international airport after its modernization.
Agartala airport modernization project involves upgrading of the runway and aprons, construction of six aerobridges, three elevators and two escalators besides walkways to connect the international arrival and departure levels. Airports are being made international as part of India's "Look East" policy to boost the northeast region's connectivity and trade with Southeast Asia.
Sanjay Majumder
Anirban Mitra