NEW DELHI, SEPT 5
The Centre will soon declare the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) airport in Agartala as an international airport while two more defunct airports will also be made operational, said Tripura Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Thursday.
However, he added, “Eyeing the unrest in Bangladesh, it is uncertain when the flight services to the neighbouring country will be introduced.” Chowdhury was replying to queries raised by Opposition leader Jitendra Chaudhury in the state Assembly.
The Centre’s move comes after former chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb demanded the MBB airport to be granted international status in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier in December 2022, the state government had provided Rs 3.85 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) as three months’ advance for setting up international facilities at the MBB airport apart from deputing 25 police personnel to the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs, said the minister.
Earlier, the Tripura government had decided to provide Rs 15 crore to the AAI after it was decided that SpiceJet would operate its flights on the Agartala-Chittagong route, he added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the new terminal building of the MBB airport in 2022. The MBB airport is currently the second busiest airport in Northeast India, with close to 1.8 million passenger footfall recorded in 2019, after the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport of Guwahati.
The MBB airport’s history dates back to 1942, when it was built as a military airstrip on a piece of land donated by the then king of Tripura – Maharaja Bir Bikram Manikya Bahadur. The airport was renamed after him in July 2018.
The new terminal building was built at Rs 500 crore and is part of the AAI’s Rs 3,400 crore initiative to develop airports and airfields across different states of Northeast India.
The new terminal building will be capable of handling four to five times more passengers than the existing terminal, which was commissioned in 2001 with a maximum capacity of handling 500 passengers at a time, including departures and arrivals. With 19 flights operating daily from this airport, the existing terminal has become saturated and the new integrated terminal building with a modular design was started to handle 1,200 passengers at a time, including domestic and proposed international segments.
The entire structure of the new terminal building of the MBB Airport stands on 25,000 square metre and would be armed with six bays, one hangar, 20 check-in counters, five custom counters, 10 immigration counters, apron for six aircraft parking bays, provisions for link cabs, inline baggage system, a solar power unit capable to handle most power requirements of the installation and a self-sustainable sewage treatment plant.
Tripura is the closest neighbour of Bangladesh and its airport lies close to the barbed wire fence which separates India with Bangladesh. The state government has been trying for years to develop the MBB Airport, earlier known as the Agartala Airport, to an international airport and host aircrafts from Bangladesh and other nearby countries.
In the Northeast region, the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport and the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal have the international status.
Chowdhury also said the Ministry of Civil Aviation has taken initiatives to restart the airports in Kailasahar in Unakoti district and Kamalpur in Dhalai district which are lying defunct.
