Bishnu Rana

TEZU, Dec 14: Giving thrust to the dream of bringing Tezu in the aviation map of India seems to be a far cry. Tezu Airport, the only civilian airport of the state has set several deadlines on operationalisation of the airport but unfortunately failed. 
On May 20, 2016 the then Chief Minister late Kalikho Pul was assured operation of the airport by June 2016. Again it was set to March 2017 and then to March 2018. However, fresh finalization was made in November this year but with December heading for completion; the flying dream at present is just that.
Under the active initiative of the Lohit district administration, most of the pending codal formalities have been completed, including the clearance of approach and transfer funnel, pruning of trees and bushes in the vicinity and other unauthorized activities to facilitate smooth landing of flights.  The airport has also been equipped with Night Landing Facility, new air traffic control (ATC), technical block, fire station (Cat-IV), terminal building, etc.
Meanwhile, when asked about the landing of Zoom Airways, Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials at Tezu said that they have made requisite infrastructure ready but Zoom Airways is reluctant to operate citing loss in business on the question of availability of passenger traffic. The authority suggested the state government to pursue airlines for early operations.
Zoom Airways had bid for the Northeast routes and Tezu Airport in the second phase of UDAN. The UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme has a provision that subsidizes 50 per cent of the seats on a flight. The fare for these seats will be Rs 3,100 one-way to Arunachal Pradesh from Calcutta, airline officials said.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday informed that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has planned for construction of a new domestic terminal at the Tezu airport in Lohit district which would handle around 200 passengers during peak hours.
Prabhu, who was replying to an unstarred question raised by Lok Sabha MP Ninong Ering regarding the construction and expansion of old airports in the country, including those in Arunachal Pradesh during the ongoing winter session of the parliament.
The Union Minister further informed that the extension of runway by 128 mtrs, strengthening of the existing runway and new apron for two ATR 72 types of aircraft along with link taxiway has already been completed at the Tezu airport and it is ready for operationalization with an interim terminal building.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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