Air force grounds Kumbhirgram runway plan

The jinx continues for Kumbhirgram airport.
Just when everything seemed to be going well for the project that is supposed to transform the 66-year-old airport into a state-of-the-art aviation facility, there are murmurs about the air force throwing a spanner in the works again.
Sources said renovation of the airport was unlikely to be completed by the target date, June 30.
Top officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), engaged for the past four years in implementing a package of schemes worth Rs 50 crore, are said to be dismayed by the air force’s stand on the renovation of Kumbhirgram, the third busiest in the Northeast after the Guwahati, Agartala and Imphal airports.
A senior AAI official at the airport, of World War II vintage, said the air force’s objections centred on the extension of the runway to facilitate smooth landing and take-off of large aircraft.
Air force officials in New Delhi and Shillong, the eastern headquarters, have been maintaining a studied silence on the AAI’s proposal to dismantle the wall that straddles a part of the proposed runway route.
Union minister of state for heavy industries Sontosh Mohan Dev, who is the MP from Silchar, has time and again taken up the issue with the air force headquarters and defence minister A.K. Antony.
14/02/08 The Telegraph

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Categories: airports Feb 2008