Das Munshi: Eyeing skies

Malda, Feb. 20: Eighteen years after he launched the initiative to connect two north Bengal districts with Calcutta via air, Union water resources minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi has managed to get the approval for another runway, this time for his home constituency Raiganj.

An Airports Authority of India (AAI) team will arrive here tomorrow to scout for a site even as efforts continue to restart the civil aerodromes at both Malda and Balurghat that have been lying defunct for years now. The services were grounded since not many were willing to shell the kind of money needed to fly to Calcutta.

The sudden decision to create an airport in North Dinajpur has, however, surprised many since no one in the past has raised demands to link the district with Calcutta through air services.

Discussions over restarting air services in north Bengal districts have always centred around Cooch Behar, Malda and Balurghat, from where Vayudoot, an Indian Airlines subsidiary, earlier ran its services.

AAI sources in Calcutta confirmed that it was Das Munshi who had got in touch with the civil aviation ministry for extending air services to Raiganj, the district headquarters.

They added that a facsimile message had been received at Calcutta on Friday from the ministry, which stated that proposal for an airport at Raiganj had been cleared.

The AAI team will send a report to Delhi after their site inspection, the sources said.

Confirming the visit of the AAI team, North Dinajpur district magistrate Manish Jain said: ?I have instructed the officials of the land department to be ready with the availability of land.?

?The amount of land asked for is more than what we have available right now. We will show them the Karandighi, Hemtabad and Karnajore areas. But it is good news that the AAI is interested in having an airport here,? he added.