‘Aerotropolis’ near Durgapur hoping to attract flyers from mining belt

Durgapur: For a century old coal mining area in the resource rich Ranigunj coalfields, Andal’s only connection to aviation was an abandoned World War-II airstrip.
But that was nearly a decade ago when Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL) was yet to propose setting up the State’s first privately-owned airport as part of an 1,800-acre airport-city (aerotropolis) project, here to tap the huge potential of the adjoining Durgapur-Asansol industrial belt.
Today, its brand new air-traffic control tower rivals the head-gear of the underground Moira colliery, once the tallest structure in town. The Rs 600-crore domestic airport, with peak hour capacity of nearly 450 passengers, is waiting to commence operations in the next four-to five months. “We are likely to make the airport operational by end of 2012,” Subrata Paul, CEO, BAPL, told Business Line.
23/08/12 Abhishek Law/Pratim Ranjan Bose/Business Line

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Categories: airports Aug 2012, New Aug 2012