AGARTALA, Sept 8 - The new terminal building of the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport, spread over an area of 30,000 square feet, would be ready for operation by the end of this year, according to sources.
If everything goes as per the script, the construction will be completed by the end of October and interior decoration will be completed by December. The entire structure will be made of steel and glass. To make it more glamourous, the state�s two archaeological sites � Unakoti and Chhabimura � would be depicted inside the terminal building.
Around 80 per cent work of the new terminal building � designed keeping in mind the possible international tag � has been completed. The new building will have a capacity of handling 1,200 passengers at a time, with special arrangement for 200 international fliers.
The new two-storey building will house as many as six aircraft (aprons), but there will be no extension of the existing runway because of land scarcity.
The MBB Airport is situated close to the Indo-Bangla border and there is little scope to expand the existing runway if Bangladesh doesn�t provide land to the Indian authorities.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is contemplating the inauguration of the new terminal building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January, said an official on Sunday.
A senior transport department official said the new terminal building was supposed to be operational by October as per the project proposal but the construction agency could not meet the deadline.
