Then there were 7: Govt plans Arunachal airport bonanza

At the centre of a territorial dispute between India and China, Arunachal Pradesh appears set for new developments...

At the centre of a territorial dispute between India and China, Arunachal Pradesh appears set for new developments with the Indian side planning a major air-infrastructure upgrade, hoping to further stamp its authority on the state.

Having already moved swiftly on examining the possibilities for setting up two Greenfield airports in the state — at Tawang and Banderdeva (Itanagar) — the Indian Government has a new plan afoot to operationalise five existing airports in the state which are currently lying unused. If the plan goes through, Arunachal Pradesh would become the only state in the country having as many as seven airports. The state does not have an operational airport as of date.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) recently called for bids to get the engineering consultancy, techno-economic feasibility study, detailed project report and detailed engineering done for non-operational airports at Passighat, Tezu, Along, Deparizo and Ziro. These five airports in Arunachal Pradesh were operationalised in the’80s but had to shut down following the discontinuation of air services after Vayudoot wound up its operations. Non-availability of suitable type of aircraft to operate these airstrips hastened their closure.

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The North East Council recently requested the AAI to get the DPRs prepared for airports at Tezu and Passighat. AAI’s latest move also includes plans to operationalise airports at Kamalpur and Kailashahar in Tripura and Tura in Meghalaya.

Topographic surveys, geo-technical investigations, traffic assessments, financial and economic assessments, calculation of rate of returns and preparing cost estimates to operationalise these airports would be the major works the consultants would be tasked with, said AAI officials.

The northeastern region currently has 23 airports, out of which as many as 12 are non-operational. These include airports at Along, Daparizo, Kailashahar, Kamalpur, Khowai, Passighat, Rupsi, Tezu, Tura, Turial, Ziro and Shella.

Also, all the 11 operational airports at Agartala, Aizwal, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Guwahati, Imphal, Jorhat,Lilabari, Shillong, Silchar and Tezpur incur annual losses worth Rs 61 crore in terms of expenditure incurred on them and the revenue generated.

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