NORTH LAKHIMPUR, Sept 15 - The Lilabari airport situated in Lakhimpur district and which also serves the people of Arunachal Pradesh as well as the Indian Army have been incurring huge losses due to less frequency of flights operating from here.
Talking to the mediapersons here on Wednesday, WA Ansari, Airport Director, AAI-Lilabari said that only Air India�s 48-seater ATR-42 class was operating from Kolkata to Lilabari via Guwahati on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday � sixteen days in a month.
He further said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) � Lilabari is initiating its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme in North Lakhimpur and as a part of AAI�s CSR programme, the Lilabari airport has signed an MoU with PWD-Building North Lakhimpur for the construction of children play houses at the cost of Rs 58 lakh. He said that the Lilabari airport would also improve the trauma centre of North Lakhimpur Civil Hospital with sophisticated equipment.
It may be mentioned that the Lilabari airport project in Lakhimpur began after hectic campaigning and lobbying by the then local Member of Parliament (MP), Dr Ranee Narah in 1999-2003. Construction of the airport had finished by 2003, and the terminal was inaugurated by the then Union Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain.
