NEW DELHI: The Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati will soon get a facelift as part of the new civil aviation policy of the NDA government.
In a letter to MP Wansuk Syiem, Civil Aviation Minister P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Wednesday the airport in Guwahati will be expanded and modernised to improve air connectivity to the North East. “The Airport Authority of India will soon develop the Guwahati airport as an inter-regional hub and Dibrugarh, Imphal and Agartala airports as intra-regional hubs,” he said.
Syiem, in a special mention during the last session of the Rajya Sabha, had criticised the Centre for ignoring the landlocked northeastern region and not improving the international airport in Guwahati. She had also stressed on the need for expanding and improving the only operational airport in Shillong.
“The airport in Guwahati has been declared as an international one and there is tremendous increase in traffic. But the facilities remain the same as when it was a domestic one,” Syiem had said and added that the Guwahati airport was a hub for domestic flights to the North East.
Syiem had also recommended cheaper and smoother flights between tier II and III towns and cities as per the new aviation policy recommends. “There is a need for deploying smaller aircraft in the region considering the small size of the air traffic as per the Rohit Nandan Committee report,” she had said.
The airport in Guwahati will be expanded and modernised to handle more traffic and flights, especially at night, Raju said on Wednesday. There will be an ATC-cum-technical block, fire station and cargo terminal.
