Airstrips for Northeast

Mihir Mishra / New Delhi October 25, 2011, 0:35 IST/ Business Standard

The Northeastern region will get better air connectivity under the 12th Five Year Plan as the government plans to build airstrips in this part during the 2012-17 period. The move was being made considering the poor flight services in the region comprising Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim, Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi said.

“The other major investments under the Plan will be in the GPS-aided geo-augmented navigation system and in the city-side development of the Airports Authority of India airports,” he said. During the 11th Plan period (2007-12), the government had announced to build three greenfield airports — one each at Pakyong in Sikkim, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, and Chiethu in Nagaland.

The AAI is implementing the Rs 774-crore Gagan project in three phases through 2008, with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation. This system will provide navigation system for all phases of flight over the Indian airspace and in the adjoining area. Now, the state-owned airport operator plans to develop the city side of 15 airports in the country on a public-private partnership basis.

The aviation sector has been one of the best performers during the 11th Plan Period (2007-12). It was during then that the government had announced to build three greenfield airports — one each at Pakyong in Sikkim, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, and Chiethu in Nagaland. Aviation in the country has been growing (in terms of passengers) by 20 per cent during the current plan. This growth is one of the highest in the world.

However, the period also saw merger of erstwhile Air India and Indian Airlines, which did not yield the kind of results as expected. The merged entity is under losses of Rs 20,000-crore accumulated since the merger in 2007.

In the airport sector, the period saw AAI upgrading 35 non-metro airports, likely to be completed by 2012.