SHILLONG, Jan 30: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has suggested that several areas in the surrounding hills at the greenfield site may have to be leveled, while expecting of the state government to undertake the work.
The AAI opined this in its pre-feasibility report, which it placed before the High Court of Meghalaya on Monday.
“In a convoluted sense and without undertaking a more scientific and precise exercise of ascertaining the feasibility of the area, on the basis of topography sheets available from the Survey of India, the AAI has rendered its opinion,” the division bench of the High Court said.
On the aspect of cost, the bench noted that the levelling work will involve a huge expenditure which the state may not be able to afford. But the learned Advocate-General says that the matter will be placed for consideration before both the PWD and the appropriate authorities in the state, the court said.
“At the end of the day, it has to be both the State and the Union who have to be on the same page for an appropriate airport to be set up in Meghalaya. The hills here are not as steep or as difficult to manoeuvre around as the Himalayas to the north and it is more than likely that a full-fledged independent airport catering to Shillong and able to host widebodied aircrafts would give a big fillip to the state,” the court said.
The division bench also recognised that “it is a matter of policy that involves both the state and the Union and, whether or not at the prodding of private agencies in control of nearby airports, if either the State or the Union is not keen, no mandamus can issue in such regard.”
The State, on the other hand, has indicated that it has entered into an agreement with a private airline for regular service of a bombardier aircraft between New Delhi and Shillong and a minimum guaranteed amount as assured by the state.
The kind of demand for such flight will help the state assess whether Shillong will have the passenger capacity warranting a larger airport, it submitted before the court.
The matter will appear eight weeks hence for both the State and the AAI to indicate the progress, the bench said.
