Shillong, Feb 20: The Baljek Airport located in the outskirts of Tura, the second largest town in Meghalaya will continue to remain defunct for some more time since no bidders are interested to operate smaller flights from the Airport.
Replying to a query from Ampati MLA, Miani D Shira, Deputy Chief Minister in charge, Transport Sniawbhalang Dhar said that the Chief Minister had written many letters and the latest reply from the Ministry of Civil Aviation is that no bidder is interested to operate smaller flights.
Terming this as unfortunate, Dhar however said that he is following up on the matter to ensure that smaller flights operate from the Baljek Airport.
Earlier, the opposition MLA also inquired from the Government as to why the Airport could not be made functional till date to which Dhar replied that the total area of the Airport is not enough to operate ATR flights.
It may be mentioned that the Government in the year 2013 had acquired 50 acres of land but it was not sufficient enough and according to Dhar, the Airports Authority of India has asked for more land
“ We are following up on the matter but it will take some more time as without another 60 acre of land, we cannot operate ATRs from there,’ he said
It is learnt that the land acquisition proceedings for another 60 acre is on after which AAI would be asked to send DPR for infrastructural development of the Airport.
Nongthymmai MLA Charles Pyngrope also inquired as to how much land is required to make the Airport functional to which the Minister informed that the present area of the Airport is around 120 acres and it need another 60 acres
To another supplementary about runway extension, he said that the present length of the runway at the Baljjek Airport is 1100 metres and it needs to be extended upto 1750 metres for ATRs to land