Shillong,Sept 23: The state cabinet will meet on Wednesday to clear additional 22 acres of land allotment for the expansion of Umroi airport.
Deputy Chief Minister Sniawbhalang Dhar along with officials carried out an inspection of the Umroi airport here on Friday and met the officials from the Civil Aviation Ministry and Airport Authority.
“We have received the second report from the Airport Authority of India (AAI), which indicated that the possibility is there to expand the runway of the airport but there are certain issues, which need to be taken up with the government of India before proceeding ahead with the expansion project, these related to certain guidelines, where we need the government of India to exempt so that we can bring big aircraft to land in the Shillong airport.”
The deputy chief minister said, “If exemption is not considered, the cost will be so much to bear. If we get the exemption, we can expand the airport within few years from now.”
“Further, as per latest survey, we want to avoid hillocks so we will have to extend the runway – 900 meters within our own land. if we have to clear hillocks it will cost over Rs 8000 crore But there are certain guidelines, we will request government of India to exempt to pave way for expansion of the airport runway,” he said.
Dhar said out of additional 22 acres of land for the expansion project, 16 acres are for safety aspects and 6 acres for parking bay for big aircraft.
To another query, Dhar said, “As per the plan, more or less Rs 500 crore wil be spent by AAI and the money for land acquisition will be released by the state government.”
