PMs visit boosts importance of Leelabari airport
>From Our Correspondent
NORTH LAKHIMPUR, Feb 13 Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singhs arrival at North
Lakhimpurs Leelabari airport en-route to his recent visit to the neighbouring
Arunachal Pradesh has greatly boosted the importance of this airport for
frequent air services to the rest of the country. The Prime Minister arrived
with Indian Air Forces Boeing aircraft at the Leelabari airport and he was
received at the tarmac by the Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, State Water Resources
& Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Bharat Narah, deputy commissioner, Lakhimpur,
Manish Thakur, superintendent of police, Sayed Ataul Kerim and other high-level
government officials.
The Prime Ministers official aircraft landed at the Leelabari airport as
neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh has no airports with facilities of landing of
large commercial aircrafts. The hilly location and inhospitable terrain of
Arunachal Pradesh does not allow the construction of big airports with long
runways there for which Leelabari, located in the plains of Assam, just 10 kms
away from the Arunachal border can be a great facilitator for the air
travellers of the sub-Himalayan Arunachal Pradesh which has international
border with China.
Earlier also when the Leelabari airport was only a small one and when only a
Fokker of the erstwhile Indian Airlines operated daily flights to Kolkata via
Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur and Guwahati, all the high-level officers from
Itanagar, ministers and legislators and even the Governors used the Leelabari
airport for outside travel by taking the only hour long motor way to the
airport in North Lakhimpur. Even in almost all the cities of our country, the
airports are located at least one or one and half hours drive away from the
main centre or the capital complexes.
The Leelabari airport can be a gateway to Arunachal Pradesh for the States air
travellers. The transit visit by the Prime Minister in Leelabari en-route to
Itanagar has pertinently enhanced the importance of this airport. The large
runway, night landing facility and a state of the art passenger terminal at the
Leelabari airport can easily operate direct flights to Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, Bangalore etc for Arunachal Pradesh as well as for the people of
Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and east Sonitpur districts.
(The Assam Tribune,14.02.2008)
---------------------------------
Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now
_______________________________________________
assam mailing list
[email protected]
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
