Adani Group to Take Over Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in October 2021

NEW DELHI: As part of its mandate to develop and modernize northeast India's main airport, the Adani Group began its "Observation Period" at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) airport in Guwahati.

According to reports, an Airport Authority of India (AAI) official said that a nine-member team of the Adani Airport Holding Ltd (AAHL) led by Chief Airport Officer Utpal Baruah, an aviation industry expert who also hails from Assam, on Monday formally started its "Observation Period" and is likely to take over charge in October.

Land near the airport had also been given to the AAHL on a lease basis for a period of 50 years in a bid to develop aviation-related business and related services.

In 2018, the Central government leased out six AAI airports -- Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru -- for operation, management, and development under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.

"The Centre took the decision to enhance the revenue of the AAI and augment the economic development in these areas in terms of job creation and related infrastructure," the AAI official told IANS.

Meanwhile, Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu called on Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia in New Delhi and discussed various issues pertaining to the state's airports.

An official of the Chief Minister's Office on Monday said that Khandu requested Scindia to consider the development of Advance Landing Grounds in the state's airports.

"Besides pleading for conducting a feasibility inspection of ALG Tuting and Mechuka for fixed-wing operation, the CM reiterated for starting of fixed-wing flight operation at Pasighat and Tezu airports on priority basis," the official said.

The CMO official said that accompanied by Lok Sabha member Tapir Gao, state's Civil Aviation Minister Nakap Naloh, Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar, and Commissioner Prashant Lokhande, he briefed Scindia about the progress of Holongi Airport. The Chief Minister said that work on the airport, near Itanagar, is on a war footing and it will be made operational by the next year.

Currently, there are 15 airports in the northeast region -- Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur, Lilalabari, and Rupsi (Assam), Tezu and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Agartala (Tripura), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dimapur (Nagaland), Lengpui (Mizoram), and Pakyong (Sikkim).

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