Chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel at the Behala airport upgrade programme. Picture by Amit Datta

The civil aviation ministry will pump in Rs 50 crore to revamp Behala airport, where it intends starting commercial operation of flights in a year and a half.

This will be in addition to the Rs 10 crore that the Centre has already sanctioned for the upgrade of the airport’s infrastructure.

“We have sought land from the state government to extend the runway and set up other facilities. The Rs 50-crore fund will be spent once the land is available,” civil aviation minister Praful Patel said on Sunday.

He was speaking at a programme, attended by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to lay the foundation stone for the upgrade of the airport and the inauguration of the Camellia group’s pilot training institute.

Patel asked the chief minister for land in Behala so that an “auxiliary smaller-capacity airport” could be set up to take load off the over-burdened Dum Dum airport.

The runway in Behala is 3,500 ft long and needs to be extended by 1,000 ft (400 metres) to enable small commercial aircraft to land or take off.

Of the 400 metres, around 200 metres are available with the Airports Authority of India (AAI). For the rest, the ministry is seeking around 30 acres from the state government. “Once the runway extension is complete, small commercial aircraft like ATR can operate from Behala,” the minister pointed out.

The authorities will spend Rs 10 crore on resurfacing the runway, repairing boundary walls and setting up lights.

The subsequent grant of Rs 50 crore will be used to set up a passenger terminal building, an air traffic control tower and other amenities. Patel requested the state government to provide infrastructure support, like power and water supply, to the airport.

The civil aviation sector in India has recorded a growth of more than 26 per cent over the past few years. The growth has created the demand for smaller airports, where some domestic aircraft can be diverted. Such facilities are available in Mumbai and Delhi. “We want to increase connectivity to the east through smaller airports like the one in Behala,” Patel said.

The chief minister said the local MP, Sujan Chakraborty, and government officials have been asked to look into the Union ministry’s demand for land in Behala. “For development of infrastructure in our state, we need more ports and airports. Work on a sea port will start soon,” he said.

Welcoming the Camellia group’s attempt to open a pilot training school, the chief minister said: “With more airlines coming in, there will be a huge demand for pilots. But there was no such institute in the east and Northeast.”