Silchar, May 28: The Union ministry of defence has cleared the long-pending proposal of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to allow civilian aircraft to land at night in Silchar airport at Kumbhirgram village.

This 69-acre airport has been under the control of the Indian Air Force, which has a helicopter squadron in its station behind the civil aerodrome.

The IAF has been opposed to the facility of night flights for civilian aircraft there because of its proximity to the disturbed states of Manipur and Mizoram and the international Bangladesh border.

According to AAI sources, the defence ministry has also been opposed to the idea but had to give way after S.M. Dev, former Union minister and an MP from Silchar, raised the issue in Parliament .

Sources said the night landing system in this airport became operational in 2009 at a cost of Rs 2 crore.

An air force official, however, said though permission for night landing had been accorded, it would take time for this facility to be translated into reality as both the IAF and the AAI had shortage of staff.

AAI officials said flight destinations from Silchar to other airports in the region were expected to hit a new low of about 70,000 passengers this fiscal, against an earlier figure of 81,654 passengers in 1996-97, though the airport was adequately equipped with the state-of-the-art gadgets such a Rs 20-crore instrumental landing system (ILS).

At present, flights operate from Silchar to Guwahati, Tezpur and Calcutta while in the 80s and 90s the airport was linked to Imphal, Agartala and Shillong apart from Calcutta and Guwahati.