SHILLONG: Meghalaya Government is contemplating to create an aviation wing in the Transport Department since a lot of emphasis is being laid on the need to make the Umroi and Baljek airports functional and to avoid complete dependence on Airports Authority of India (AAI).
Meghalaya has Umroi and Baljek airports but both are still not fully functional except for a single ATR flight from Kolkata to the former six days a week.
Sources said that the government is keen to appoint experts from the aviation sector in the proposed aviation wing.
According to them, creating an aviation wing with experts in it would be a boon since there is a lot of development taking place for making the Shillong airport functional.
It was also informed that the Airport Authority of India had recently asked the Meghalaya government to cut a small hillock in front of the Umroi airport for landing of the bigger aircraft and the latter accordingly followed the suggestion.
Now, the AAI is telling the state government to cut another hillock near the airport which will cost around Rs 6,000-7,000 crore.
“So the government is thinking ‘why should we be fully dependent on AAI and do whatever they say’. We can have aviation experts in the Transport Department who would also give us suggestions on how to make the airports functional,” a source said.
Sources also questioned as to why the AAI has raised the issue of chopping massive hillocks now when the Umroi airport was constructed a long time back, and why did they develop the airport then despite knowing that the hillocks would be an obstacle for the expansion of the airport in the future.
