The union government under the second phase of Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) regional connectivity scheme shall invest Rs 500 crores in Agartala which has huge opportunities in the aviation sector, Chairman of AAI Guru Prasad Mahapatra said.
Mahapatra who arrived here on Friday on a two day visit to the state discussed with Tripura Chief Secretary Sanjeev Ranjan on the scopes of improving air connectivity through restarting the closed and starting new airports in the region.
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Later speaking to reporters he said, “The regional connectivity is essentially meant to connect small cities with each other as well as big cities and in the second round of bidding for UDAN that took place in Tripura, Kailashahar has been selected to be connected with other cities. The financial bid was opened on Thursday and Kailashahar is in the map so as soon as the airlines operator wants to start the operations we will make the airport ready.”
He informed that at present annually around 13 lakh air passengers travel in and out from the Agartala airport and which is the second busiest in the region after Guwahati.
The AAI Chairman said, “Agartala has a good potential and that’s why we are now constructing a Rs 500 crores new terminal building.”
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He added that the Northeast region demands huge improvement in air connectivity and keeping this in mind the centre has decided to invest large amount in the aviation sector as it has huge potential.
“In Northeast we are going to invest around Rs 2500 crores in three years time. A new terminal building is coming up at Agartala, Guwahati, we are extending the runway in Shilong to cater bigger flights, we are planning to setup new airports at Holongi of Arunachal Pradesh, Teju and Pakyong airports are ready for inauguration. These are part of Act East because Northeast required major air connectivity,” Mahapatra said.
Later the Chairman also had a review meeting with all airport Directors and Managers of the region.