AGARTALA, June 3 (TIWN): Even after the state government has handed over the land to the AAI authority by spending an amount of RS 38 crore now the AAI authority is delaying the project of modernization work of Agartala airport.

According to the planning, the AAI was supposed to begin with the modernization work by January but this year it is already delayed by 6 months and it might get delayed more as there is no assurance when the airport modernization work will begin in the state.

However, the state government is planning to write to Civil Aviation Minister.

When the plan for expansion was supposed to take lift in the month of January but it is seen that no progress is made on the railway expansion work so far.

Besides expanding the runway to accommodate more flights vital for trade and industrial exports, plans were drawn up for both domestic and international travellers. The region’s long-term economic needs were factored in while the master plan was drawn up. 

Land acquisition is vital to meet the expansion of airport for international flights, according to sources. The much awaited project of airport expansion is yet to take any lift.

A source in agartala airport says that we are determined to make progress on this vital issue but we need to carefully consider the Airports Commission's full body of work before setting out next steps.

Despite of Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) giving clearance to the plan of setting up new terminal building at Agartala Airport but no progress is seen so far.

The work is nearly stopped and there is no assurance when the work will gain momentum in the coming days.

However, the much awaited expansion project includes extension of runway to successfully accommodate wide bodied aircraft and to improve the passenger’s amenities. Four aero bridge provisions is likely to be there in the new terminal building, so that it can handle 1000 passengers on both departure and arrival at a time. Besides four conveyors belt will also inducted in the new terminal.

Airport Director also said the new terminal building would be at least double its present size and the size of the apron would be four times bigger than the current size.  The director informed that the estimate cost for constructing the new terminal building will be around Rs 250 crore. For beefing up the security in the Airport, 87 CCTV cameras have been installed in the airport.