M’laya: HC Asks Govt to Pick Land for Greenfield Airport

Guwahati: The state administration has been tasked by the Meghalaya High Court with selecting a site for the state’s upcoming Greenfield airport.

A division bench of the Meghalaya high court, presided over by chief justice Sanjib Banerjee, issued the order after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the subject.

In an order, the Meghalaya High Court said, “The state, in consultation with Airports Authority of India (AAI) or even the officials stationed at the Umroi airport should make an attempt to identify a few pockets of land and, thereupon, AAI may be invited to give a preliminary opinion as to whether any of such pockets would be feasible for a Greenfield airport project.”

However, the Court made it plain that if the state and union governments object to the construction of a new airport in the state, it would not interfere or impose its will.

The court also stated that a new airport near Shillong might help the state and its development efforts.

The court noted that because of the length of the runway and the nearby hills, wide-bodied aircraft cannot currently land at Umroi. Instead, smaller aircraft like Bombardiers and ATRs arrive at the current airport. The Shillong Airport is about 30 minutes from the city, whereas the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport in Guwahati is about 140 km distant and takes more than 3 hours to drive to.

Moreover, the Court noted that although Meghalaya is a hilly state, it also contains sizable tracts of plains, and that the area that could host a larger airport the nearest to the state appears to be the Ri-Bhoi district or the West Khasi Hills. The Shillong Airport is situated in Umroi, but the AAI had stated in its reports that Umroi might not be the best location for the airport’s expansion to accommodate larger aircraft because doing so would entail expensively falling hills.