The central government has expansive infrastructure development plans for West Bengal, including a second airport for Kolkata, according to Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. The minister claimed that the Mamata Banerjee administration has not yet offered land for the second airport.
According to Scindia, he has been requesting a meeting with the chief minister of Kolkata for six months to discuss building a second airport as the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport (NSCBI Airport) has reached its capacity, but he has not received any response.
“We want a new airport to be built in Kolkata, the existing one is at present running at maximum capacity, and for several years, letters and views are being exchanged for a new site, but no concrete step has come from the state government,” he told reporters at a press conference.
Proposed new airport in Kolkata to have two lakh square metres
Scindia inquired how the work on the proposed new airport for Kolkata would begin ‘unless the land is made accessible’ to the Airports Authority of India. “We are investing Rs 700 crore for the present Kolkata airport. A new technical block cum control tower will be made operational for Rs 300 crore,” he said.
According to the minister, a new taxiway is being built for Rs 265 crore, and Rs 110 crore will be spent to connect the Metro Railway to the airport terminal building.
According to him, a new airport of two lakh square metres is needed to accommodate the growing number of passengers travelling to and from this eastern metropolis. While the current airport has a throughput of 2.5 crore people, Scindia estimates that the new airport’s terminal building will have a throughput of 3.5 crores.
At present, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport has 8,600 passenger capacity per day. The government targets to build a new terminal building with a capacity for 10,000 to 11,000 passengers per day. He added that such plans could only be fructified if the state government cooperates and works together with the central government. He urged the chief minister of Kolkata to work in tandem with the Centre for the development of the state.
