Old air strips in NE to be revamped

Aizawl, Oct 26 (UNI) Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) has initiated a project to reopen smaller airports and air strips, dating back to the Second World War era, for flight operations in the NE region.

The project aims to launch a dedicated airservice facility in the North-East along with North Eastern Council (NEC) and a few private operators, which would cater to remote and inaccessible areas, DoNER ministry sources informed here today.

At present only Guwahati and Agartala airports have night landing facilities.

Runways in most of the airports in the North Eastern states are insufficient in length and did not have infrastructure for airbus operations.

About 12 airports in the region have been identified for modernisation on a cost sharing basis with Airport Authority of India (AAI) at 60:40 ratio.

The proposed airports to be modernised are Guwahati, Aizawl, Imphal, Dimapur, Tezpur, Dibrugarh, Lilabari, Silcahr, Agartala, Kamalpur, Kailashahar and Shillong.

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