Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Greenfield private airport set for takeoff

Durgapur: This passenger terminal should put most of the smaller airports in the region to shame: it can accommodate 450 passengers boarding or alighting four airplanes, simultaneously; work is on in full swing to complete the four km access road from NH-2; and at the air traffic control (ATC), technicians are busy getting everything in order.

Welcome to India’s first greenfield private airport -- named after Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam -- at Andal, on the outskirts of Durgapur, that will start operations next month, exactly two years behind schedule. The project suffered time and cost overruns due to land acquisition problems.

Located nearly 180 kms from Kolkata, the ?650 crore airport is a part of India’s first airport-city project promoted by Bengal Aerotropolis Pvt Ltd (BAPL) with Changi Airports of Singapore as lead partner. Total investments, including city side development, have already crossed ?1000 crore.
“We are planning a big bang opening in April, with a host of scheduled and non-scheduled air services to different destinations,” Partha Ghosh, Managing Director of BAPL told BusinessLine.
24/03/15 Pratim Ranjan Bose/Abhishek Law/Business Line
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