‘Umroi runway work to take off in year’s time’

SHILLONG: “If everything goes well, the expansion work of Shillong Airport runway will begin in a year’s time from now,” said Sreekumar, General Manager (Engineering), Airport Authority of India (AAI) Regional office.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Saturday, the senior AAI official said  that the  State Government has already started construction of the boundary wall.
“Once the construction of boundary wall is completed, runway expansion work will begin,” he said adding that the installation of instrument landing system (ILS) and other equipments would follow.
Another bottleneck is a road which passes through the airport. It is learnt that it would take around six-month time to shift the road.
Stating that the  AAI had submitted a proposal to the North Eastern Council (NEC) for the expansion of the runway in 2012 , he said that nothing materialized till date due to some problems.
So far, no sanction has been made for the runway and the AAI has prepared a Rs 150 crore plan for the expansion of the runway.
He said that around  92 hectares of land was handed over to the AAI by the State Government.
It may be mentioned that the Airport Authority of India has invited tenders for the instrument landing system which will be installed soon. Once installed, the Instrument Landing System would provide better visibility to flights even during bad weather.
Though the airport terminal was inaugurated long time back, the airport till date has only one flight which connects   Shillong with Kolkata.