Northeast India will get its 14th airport even as commercial operations from the re-developed Rupsi airport is expected to begin from January
Bengaluru: Northeast India will get its 14th airport even as commercial operations from the re-developed Rupsi airport is expected to begin from January. With this Assam would get its seventh airport. This will give a fillip to the air connectivity to the northeast part.
A website reported that an Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said that the Rupsi airport is ready to commence operations under Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) -- UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik).
It is to be noted that the airport in Kokrajhar district in western Assam (bordering West Bengal) has been re-developed at an estimated cost of Rs 69 crore and has also received its license from the directorate feneral of civil aviation.
"The airport is one of India's newest in RCS route which would cater to local population providing direct connectivity to cities like Guwahati and Kolkata," the official said.
Spread across 337 acres of land, the newly-developed airport has a terminal building with an area of 3,500 square metres. The newly-built runway is suitable for ATR-72 type aircraft.
It is heartening to note that the airport is also provisioned with sustainability features like rainwater harvesting system, solid waste management system and horticulture works besides being near a fenced forest with rich fauna and flora.
The airport will cater to the need of air travellers from four western Assam districts of Dhubri, Kokarajhar, Bongaigaon and Goalpara as well as neighbouring states like West Bengal, Meghalaya and some parts of Bhutan.
There are 13 existing airports in the northeast - Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur and Lilalabari (all Assam), Tezu and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Agartala (Tripura), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dimapur (Nagaland) and Lengpui (Mizoram).
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