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The Lamka Times

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Second airport for Mizoram

Silchar, Dec. 22: The Airport Authority of India (AAI), in association with the Mizoram government, is now all set to construct the second airport in the state as part of its scheme to ensure quick journeys in this hilly section of the region.

According to a senior government official, the airport will be set up at Kawmzawl, about 25km from the state's second biggest town of Lunglei in its southern flank bordering both Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The official added that the civil aviation ministry had already given a go ahead to the scheme to construct the second airport in Lunglei district, nearly 235km south of the capital Aizawl.

At present Mizoram has a lone airport at Lengpui, about 40km from Aizawl, where aircraft like Boeing and Airbus can land.

Lengpui was commissioned in 1994 at the cost of Rs 375 crore.

Mizoram chief minister Lalthanhawla has already asked for a central grant of Rs 9.8 crore from the 13th Finance Commission, in its first phase, to get the airport project started.

The official said the tentative deadline for the construction for the Lunglei airport at Kawmzawl has been set for early 2012.

The length of this small airport will be 750 metres and its width is estimated at 150 metres.

The source said at first only small aircraft, ranging from those which are nine-seaters to others having 19 seats, would be used for landing and taking off from this airport.

A yearlong survey for an ideal site for the airport in the southern part of Mizoram to identify at least two sites was started in the final months of 2008. The survey was done jointly by the AAI and the PWD department of the Mizoram government.

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