The State government is now exploring daily flights from Umroi airport to New Delhi.
Informing this here today, Commissioner and Secretary of the Transport Department, Sanjay Goyal said that the government is exploring additional air routes to have a direct flight from Umroi airport which is officially known as Shillong airport.
Recently, tenders were floated inviting bidders to operate direct flights from Shillong to Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad and even New Delhi.
As of now, a direct flight from Shillong to New Delhi operates from Umroi airport twice a week.
Asking the public to use the flights from Umroi airport as it saves money and time, Goyal said that the State government is paying a subsidised ticket price and passengers can fly directly from Umroi to New Delhi at a fixed cost of Rs 7000.
As far as the expansion of the Umroi airport is concerned, Goyal said that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has floated tenders to conduct a technical study to examine if the airport can facilitate landing of bigger aircraft or not.
The report is likely to be submitted to the State government in the next four to six months, he said.
Currently, Umroi airport despite increasing demand is able to facilitate operation of only ATR-72 aircraft since there are some obstacles in the vicinity of the airport.
The obstacles are hillocks located near the airport. Further, the runway requires extension to facilitate landing of bigger planes.
Removing these obstacles would cost the State government around Rs 7000 crore and hence the government has asked for an audit to determine if the airport can be further expanded or not.
