DHUBRI, Oct 1 - The construction and renovation works of the historic airport with significant contribution to World War-II, which functioned till early 1980s for domestic flights, have been fully completed.
The developmental works of historic airstrips started on May 23, 2018 under the UDAN 2 scheme of the Central Government and in a record time of less than 16 months, the construction and renovation works of the airport have been completed.
Airport authorities have informed that they have completed the entire task, for which a budget of Rs 69 crore was accounted. Under this budget, the runway of 1771 metres for landing and departure of flights has been developed, taxi-way has been constructed, terminals for the flights and other facilities for the airlines have been developed. Moreover, the airport waiting room has been constructed with 250 sitting capacity � 125 sitting capacity each for departure and arrival. It was also informed that the conveyor belts and security installations in the airport have already been set up.
Talking to this correspondent, the Officer in Charge of Rupshi Airport Mahbub Islam Hoque said, �Yes, we are all set to take off and land flights from here. Trujet has already agreed to operate from here.� It was also informed that the initial flights will operate between Rupshi and Borjhar (Guwahati) and a ticket will cost about Rs 1700.
Moreover, the Airport Authority of India Engineers Guild has awarded the Rupshi airport development project headed by Bhubaneswar Pandey with the Sri Visvesvaraya Award for Excellent Services in Engineering for completing the construction work in a record time and under extreme conditions, with paucity of raw materials, lack of skilled labourers and without proper connectivity.
Meanwhile, people from Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts are excited about the airport. They believe that the functioning of the airport will not only give a boost to the economic and social growth of the area, but it will also give a boost to the tourism potential of this area.
About the date of formal opening of the Airport, HP Rajkumar, SDO of Parbatjhara division said, �Everything is complete. Whenever the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation wants the airport to start functioning, it will be done. Hopefully it will be very soon.�
