By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 24: After calling bids from landowners to part with their land to pave way for the construction of greenfield airport, the state government now seems more keen on developing and extending the existing Shillong Airport at Umroi rather than constructing a new airport.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma told media persons here on Thursday that the government would need the support of Centre and Airports Authority of India (AAI) to extend the runway of the Shillong Airport even as he expressed hope that the Baljek Airport will be made functional within this year.
Sangma said that the move to find a suitable land for the construction of the new airport was based on the court and the government has realised that building a new airport would require huge land acquisition which will run into hundreds of crores of rupees and demand investment, while it is not even sure if the Centre would infuse funds or not.
“There is a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity and the easier way will be to make this current airport more flexible and expand the runway by getting more technical input,” he said, while adding that developing the present airport looks to be the easier choice.
Making it clear that the government will explore both options, the CM said that investing in the current airport would comparatively be cost-effective for the state.
Asked for his comment on the hilly terrain which seems to be hindering the expansion of the runway, Conrad said that the technical report came around 8-9 years back and the government will examine it again with a more extensive case study since the matter was reportedly not deeply examined previously.