Agartala, Jan 17 The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has upgraded Agartala’s Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport from Grade III to Grade II, based on the passenger movement and infrastructure development, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha announced on Friday.
Saha, sharing the AAI circular on his Facebook page, said: "It is a matter of great pride that MBB Airport, Agartala has been upgraded from Grade-III to Grade-II based on the passenger movement and Infrastructure development. "
"My gratitude to Hon’ble PM Narendra Modi Ji for continuous support for all round development of Tripura," he added.
According to the AAI circular, besides the MBB airport, the Bhopal, Madurai, Surat, Udaipur, and Vijayawada airports were also upgraded from Grade III to Grade II.
A senior official of the MBB airport, 20 km north of Agartala, said that with the upgradation, the rank of the Airport Director would be upgraded from Joint General Manager to General Manager and the number of existing manpower would be increased substantially.
"The MBB airport is the second busiest airport in the northeastern region after the Guwahati airport.," the official told IANS.
Tripura Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury recently said that the MBB Airport would soon be declared as an international airport by the Centre while efforts are on to make the two unused airports in the state operational.
Referring to the initiatives of the Civil Aviation Ministry, he said it was decided that after the declaration of MBB Airport as an international airport, flights would be operated between Agartala and Chittagong in Bangladesh.
"But in view of the unrest in Bangladesh, we are not certain whether it would be possible to operate flights to the neighbouring country," he had said.
Earlier it was decided that SpiceJet would operate flights on the Agartala-Chittagong route and accordingly, the Tripura government had decided to provide Rs 15 crore to the AAI, he added.
The state government paid Rs 3.85 crore to the AAI as three months’ advance in December 2022, besides providing 25 police personnel to the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Chowdhury had said.
The Minister also said the Civil Aviation Ministry has taken initiatives to operationalise the Kailashahar and Kamalpur airports in northern Tripura, which are both unused now.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the new integrated terminal of MBB Airport built at a cost of Rs 438 crore on January 4, 2022.
Currently, 13 flights operate from the MBB Airport with over 4,000 passenger footfalls daily.
With a built-up area of 30,000 sq mt, the new terminal has been designed to handle both domestic and international passengers simultaneously during peak hours.
The Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati and the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal currently enjoy international status in the northeastern region.
Located 20 km north of the state capital, the Agartala Airport, earlier known as Singerbill Airport, was renamed after Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur by the Union government in July 2018. The airport was built in 1942 on land donated by then Tripura king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. It was used as a technical base for the Royal Air Force during World War II.
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