DIBRUGARH, July 8 � The Dibrugarh Airport at Mohanbari here is going for the expansion of its runway to 7,500 ft from its present length of 6,000 ft in order to do away with the imposed load penalty on present aircraft as also to handle larger aircraft.
With the removal of load penalty, the extended runway will enable aircraft carry belly cargo and passengers to its full capacity, Airport Director, KS Pandian told The Assam Tribune. The tendering process has already started and the work order will soon be allotted for the proposed runway extension, he said. The land required for the extension was acquired last year.
On the provision of having a cargo terminal, the Airport Director said that the airport can handle more cargo after the runway extension. �Right now there is little demand for a full fledged cargo terminal. Flights are landing with some consignments and couriers from elsewhere, but they cannot take off with the same load from here, due to the shorter runway. If the runway is extended to 7,500 feet, aircraft can take off with cargo loads, Pandian said.
The Dibrugarh Airport is handling some 30,000 passengers on an average in a month. With the increase in the length of the runway, aircraft like the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 can take off and land at the airport with full load of passengers.
Social activists, Nabajyoti Borkakoty and Raju Kumar Chetry, who have been actively involved in studying the potential of the socio-economic development of the region said that there was a huge scope for tourism in the region, given the wide range of flora and fauna found in the rain forests of Jaipur in the district, Poba in Dhemaji district and the Dibrugarh Saikhowa National Park in Tinsukia district in close vicinity to the airport besides the green tea estates.
Borkakoty further said that Dibrugarh Airport being the easternmost civilian airport of the country and by virtue of its geographic proximity with the fast developing South-East Asia, had the potential of becoming the doorway of the East for the country.
