Balurghat, Nov. 20: A six-member team of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) arrived here from Calcutta today to hold talks with the district administration on ways to get 6.3 acres — earmarked for the aerodrome — encroachment-free, but returned without any positive assurances.

The team, led by AAI regional manager in Calcutta Ranjan Gupta, met South Dinajpur district magistrate Ashok Banerjee, MP Ranen Barman, municipality chairperson Sucheta Biswas and officials of the land and land revenue department.

The AAI had not been able to construct the boundary around the 155.45 acres of the airport land because of the encroachment. Sources in the district administration said the problem had been there ever since the AAI decided to renovate the existing airport with a thought of resuming commercial flights three years ago. The last of such flights, a Vayudoot Dornier, had operated in 1986.

Whenever they were asked to vacate the plots, the squatters produced the pattas or land holding rights. The land department is looking into how these 30-odd families secured the rights.

The encroachment has reduced the open space on both sides of the 1.75km-long runway from 150m to 120m.

The district magistrate said another round of talks would be held soon.

“Since these families are claiming that they have rights to the land, we have to solve the problem through dialogue. On the other hand, if the airports in Malda and Balurghat are not made ready simultaneously it will not be commercially viable for airlines to operate flights,” the district magistrate said.

While the AAI delegation did not comment on today’s discussions, Balurghat MP Ranen Barman claimed that civil aviation minister Praful Patel had said that north Bengal would soon have an air network in place. “The civil aviation ministry wanted to operate large planes like the Airbus in the region,” Barman said.

He said the current problem should be solved keeping in mind the larger interest of the state. “The district administration will look into how these families can be rehabilitated,” he said.