Tripura: Agartala airport soon to get international airport status

Guwahati: The Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport in Tripura’s Agartala is soon going to be declared as an international airport by the Centre as efforts are underway to make the two other unused airports in the state operational.

It has been decided after declaring the Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport as an international airport flights would be operated between the city and Bangladesh’s Chittagong.

However, in the wake of the unrest in the neighbouring country, the government is uncertain if it would be possible to operate flights to Bangladesh.

It was earlier decided SpiceJet would operate flights between Agartala and Chittagong and accordingly the state government had decided to provide an amount of Rs 15 crore to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

The Tripura government has already paid Rs 3.85 crore to AAI as advance for a period of three months way back in December 2022. 

The state government has also been providing 25 police personnel to the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

On the other hand, the Civil Aviation Ministry has taken initiatives to make the Kailashahar and Kamalpur airports in northern Tripura operationalise that have been unfunctional.

On January 4, 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new integrated terminal of the Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport that was built at a cost of Rs 438 crore.

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A total of 16 flights are currently operating from the airport with a footfall of 4,000 passengers daily.

The new terminal, with a built-up area of 30,000 square metre, has been designed to handle domestic as well as international passengers simultaneously during the peak hours.

At present, the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBIA) in Assam’s capital Guwahati and the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Mnaipur’s Imphal enjoys an international status in the entire Northeastern region.

Earlier this week, the Air India Express introduced daily flights in the Agartala-Guwahati-Delhi-Kolkata route that will facilitate the people of Tripura and other states of the region, who visit West Bengal at a regular basis for medical treatment, education, business, tourism besides other purposes.