Shillong, Sep 2: Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, has written to Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, requesting his personal intervention in expediting various matters for strengthening aviation infrastructure in the state.
In the letter to, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma, Scindia urged for expeditious operationalization of Tura Airport.
The Union Minister of Civil Aviation mentioned that the Ministry has launched RCS – UDAN to enhance regional air connectivity from unserved and underserved airports in the country by making air travel affordable to the masses.
“Tura airport figures in the tentative list of unserved airports. Bids for Helicopter operations have been received for two RCS routes i.e., Shillong to Tura vv and Guwahati to Tura vv in special round of bidding 4.1 and the same is likely to be finalised soon as per the provisions of scheme document,†Scindia said.
He has also drawn attention of Sangma to following issues of on request of the Meghalaya government to Airports Authority of India (AAI) for taking over the Tura Airport, and AAI had forwarded a draft MOU to State Government in 2013.
Subsequently, for expansion and development of airport for operationalization of ATR-72 type of aircraft, AAI submitted proposal for acquisition of 56.5 acres of land and a DPR with development cost of Rs.183.63 crores to State government vide letter dated June 12 2017.
The State government vide letter dated August 18. 2020 informed that survey is complete and process of obstacle removal is being initiated and AAI vide letter dated September 18, 2020 requested for additional information regarding existing infrastructure, land, finance, traffic demand and action plan.
As per air safety requirement, provision of Runway End Safety Area (RESA) of 240 m x 60m is recommended and VFR operation with Simple Approach Lighting (SAPL) is proposed in Phase-1 along with City side infrastructure, runway extension. So an additional land of 68.5 acres needs to be acquired. Thus, total land area Of 125 acres need to be acquired and handed over to AAI, free from all encumbrances and free of cost, for development of Phase-I the airport.
Further, for IFR operations with ILS and CAT-1 Lighting System, additional land of 115 Acre may be reserved by state government.
