Team surveys land for new airport in Silchar, meets administration to share findings

A five-member team visited various locations in Silchar yesterday to survey the proposed land to set up a new Greenfield Airport. The team led by Barun Kumar, joint GM, AAI which had Manjit Singh, Soumen Podder, Sunil Kumar, Rajpal Lawasia and S Ahmed (State Transport).

The team first visited Kharail Tea Estate in Dolu then it surveyed land in Dolu Tea Estate. Following which the team drove off to Silcooriee and inspected the land there. Specifically, the infrastructure feasibility and technical requirements were surveyed during the first visit.

This is not the first time AAI officials visited Silchar to survey land for the new International Airport. In August 2019, one of the most experienced officers of Airport Authority of India, executive director, AAI, Sanjeev Jindal visited Silchar. He looked around Kumbirgram Airport following which he informed the gathered press that a team from the headquarters of AAI will visit Silchar in August to finalise the land and other essentials to get the International Airport project rolling.

In July 2019, while replying to a question asked by Guwahati MP Queen Oja, Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri said that the ministry has granted ‘In Principle’ approval for setting up a new greenfield airport at Hollongi, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh whereas for Silchar Airport, AAI has requested the state government to share the land details for conducting ‘pre-feasibility study’. That is where the new International Airport started making headlines.

Today morning the team had a meeting at the deputy commissioner’s office. As per sources, they met District Development Commissioner Jessica Lalsim before leaving for Guwahati and Delhi respectively. A source in the administration informed that the committee has briefed Lalsim about the visit and shared their findings from the survey.