Chharrah airstrip to be re-opened

Purulia: The Chharrah airstrip located on the outskirts of Purulia town has been lying abandoned since 1943, right after Word War II. It was built by the British to refuel their bombing airships in 1941. Over the past 65 years, the air-strip has been marked as “no use”. The area which stretches over 603.45 acres of land now belongs to the Central government (Airport Authority of India), Union ministry of aviation.
There has been a strong demand to re-open the abandoned Purulia aerodrome. Chief minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has given his word to restart the airport: “I will try my level best to work on this issue and discuss the matter with the Central government and aviation ministry.”
Local MLAs of the CPI-M, Congress and Forward Bloc have also placed their demand in the West Bengal state assembly to reopen the airport.
“Now, everything depends on the Central government,” said Mr Subhas Chakraborty, transport minister of West Bengal, when he visited the site last week. He further added: “If the state government gets the green signal from the Union government, work will start very soon.”
Earlier, the state government had asked a non-government organisation to conduct a survey to check for the feasibility to restart the airstrip. They confirmed the feasibility of the project in their report.
06/11/08 The Statesman

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Airports Nov 2008, New Nov 2008