Civil aviation ministry assures better air connectivity
Imphal to get flight connectivity with select international destinations
Source: Chronicle News Service / DIPR

Imphal, April 13 2022: Chief Minister N Biren held a discussion with Union minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia through video conferencing from the Chief Minister's secretariat here on Wednesday.

During the interaction, various issues related to improving air connectivity and upgrade of Bir Tikendrajit International Airport were discussed.

CM Biren expressed the need to increase the number of helipads across the state so that connectivity with far flung areas is not hindered during the rainy season.

He also stressed the need of a business class flight connecting New Delhi and Imphal among other issues which were discussed during the video conference.

The union minister expressed his commitment to provide all necessary support from the ministry's side for improving air connectivity of the staff.

Chief Secretary Dr Rajesh Kumar, additional chief secretary V Vumlunmang and principal secretary Rajesh Agrawal also attended the video conference.

Meanwhile, source from the ministry said that Manipur, Tripura, and Assam will have air routes connecting with international destinations such as Bangkok, Dhaka, Kathmandu, Yangon, Hanoi, Mandalay, Kunming & Chittagong under the International Air Connectivity Scheme (IACS) launched by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, which aims to connect certain states in the country with select international destinations.

The IACS is the international UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme of the country, and it aims to promote socio-economic growth.

The northeast region also has two international airports, at Guwahati and Imphal.

While the Guwahati airport is operated by the Guwahati International Airport Limited (GIAL), the airport at Imphal is operated by Airports Authority of India (AAI) .

Both GIAL and AAI have started construction of New Integrated Terminal Building (NITB), along with a host of other development works at their respective airports in order to increase passenger handling capacity, and also to improve services of the airports.

Imphal Airport's New Integrated Terminal Building will be completed at a cost of Rs 500 crore, and will be able to handle 2.4 million passengers per annum.

Moreover, Agartala Airport's new terminal building has been constructed while keeping in mind the future requirement for international operations.

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