Zee Media Bureau/Amartya Sinha
Kolkata: The much awaited airport at Durgapur is set to be operational by December this year. The much hyped project is touted to be India's first Aerotropolis (Airport City). The Kazi Nazrul Islam international airport (named after a famous Bengali poet) will initially host domestic flight operations in December followed by international flights later.
The project, also popularly known as Andal airport is likely to cater to the Durgapur-Asansol urban centres. It is learnt that the state govt has started removing overhead electrical transmission wires running over the airstrip. Though the airport was declared ready for commercial operations in April, 2013, the overhead transmission lines criss-crossing the runway caused a delay in test landing commercial airliners on the airstrip.
The 2,000 acres airport project is being developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) in association with Singapore's Changi Airports International (CAI). To facilitate the economic dynamism in the project, the state govt has already announced a three year tax exemption on ATF (Air Turbine Fuel) in order to attract more carriers for refueling their planes at the new airport.
Meanwhile, a 4.2 km road, linking the airport to National Highway No-2 is also under construction. Most of the land acquisition bottlenecks while constructing the road link have been cleared. Sources have also revealed that BAPL is in talks with a state owned and a private airline to start regular flight operations after the new airport is thrown open to the public by the end of this year.
Due to the lack of an airport facility in the region, the urban conglomerations of Durgapur, Asansol, Burnpur and Bardhaman contribute 5 lakh passengers to the Kolkata and Ranchi airports. Most of these air passengers are on their way either to New Delhi or Mumbai. With the advent of the new airport in Durgapur, the region will be well connected with the rest of the country. The Airport City (Aerotropolis) will also tremendously boost economic activities in the region.
