A meeting of the State cabinet will be held on September 25 to clear the proposal of acquiring an additional 22 acres of land for expansion of the Shillong Airport at Umroi airport in order to facilitate big aircrafts to land.
The State government has decided to seek exemption from the Centre on certain guidelines in order to pave way for the expansion of the airport.
This was informed by Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Transport, Sniawbhalang Dhar to media persons today after a special meeting with representatives from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to discuss the proposed improvements and expansion of Umroi Airport.
Dhar said that approximately 16 acres of additional land is required for the airport’s expansion, with an additional six acres needed for a parking bay.
“We have received the second report from the Airport Authority of India (AAI), which indicated that the possibility is there (to expand the runway of the airport) but there are certain issues, which needs to be taken up with the government of India before proceeding ahead with the expansion project,” Dhar said while adding, “These are related to certain guidelines, where we need the government of India to exempt so that we can bring big aircraft to land in the Shillong airport.”
To another query, Dhar said that as per the plan, around Rs 500 crore will be spent by AAI for expansion of the airport. The land acquisition will be done by the State government.
“Before any development of the airport can proceed, certain guidelines must be clarified by the Union government. Only after these guidelines are approved can the expansion plans move forward,” he said.
The deputy chief minister said that expansion of Umroi airport will make it fully functional and also help generate 300-400 jobs both directly and indirectly.
Earlier, Dhar reviewed the proposal for expansion of the airport at the conference hall of the airport. The meeting was attended by Umroi MLA Damanbaitbha Lamare, Chief Secretary Donald P. Wahlang, AAI Regional Executive Director M Raja Kishore, Shillong Airport Director Rajeev Ranjan, Ri-Bhoi Deputy Commissioner Abhilash Baranwal among others.
