SHILLONG: The state government has floated a tender inviting private airlines to operate from Umroi airport near here to different metropolitan cities.
At present the state capital is connected by air to only Kolkata by a six-days-a-week ATR flight.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday said the tender process will end soon.
He said the government is initially looking to connect Shillong with New Delhi since it is the national capital and a large number of people frequent it.
The minister said that there were two three hillocks near the airport, which have since been chopped down to facilitate landing of bigger aircraft. The Airport Authority of india (AAI) has also given clearance to the government to invite interested private airlines to operate from the airport.
It may be mentioned that flights under UDAN were expected to take off from Shillong to connect different Northeastern states, but the project never took off.
The Shillong airport, which has a 6,000-foot tarmac, is also to be extended by another 1,500 feet as part of the infrastructure upgrade.
When asked about the Baljek airport which has been lying unutilised for long, Tynsong said that the government is keen to revive the project but it seems that the AAI wants further improvement to make it functional.
Presently, land-locked Meghalaya has two airports at Shillong and Baljek and both are more or less defunct with hardly any flight operating from these.
