SHILLONG: The North East Council (NEC) has approached the DoNER ministry for funds to develop Umroi airport.
It is learnt that the airport requires around Rs 190 crore for the expansion of the runway and development of other infrastructures.
The airport has one ATR flight which operates between Shillong and Kolkata and the airport could not be connected to other cities since the infrastructure at the airport is not up to the mark and the present length of the runway is very short for bigger aircraft to land.
The full bench of the Meghalaya High Court recently directed the Meghalaya government to demolish the buildings which are impeding the project of expansion of the airport.
“NEC will take up the project if the necessary fund is provided for it and the Council is expecting the DoNER ministry’s response in a couple of weeks time,” an official source said on Tuesday.
It may be mentioned that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has taken possession of Defence land measuring 31.825 acres for the expansion of Umroi Airport according to the affidavit filed by Sanjay Tyagi, Airport Director, Shillong, as per the last order of the High Court on November 24.
The land required for the project is free from encumbrances and a school has also been shifted to pave way for the expansion of the airport and a controversial boundary has been dismantled and construction of new boundary has begun.
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.