Our Correspondent
Imphal, Aug. 26 (EMN): Manipur Legislative Assembly on Monday resolved to rename Imphal International Airport as Bir Tikendrajit International Airport, after the famous Manipuri war hero.
Tikendrajit was a prince of the independent Kingdom of Manipur who was sentenced to death for waging war against the British in 1891.
A resolution was passed by the house of 60 legislators without much debate after the state Chief Minister Nongthombam Biren Singh moved a resolution on the first day of the two day assembly session.
Highlighting the initiative taken up by the then Congress-led government in acquiring nearly 500 acres of land in one go for the airport’s expansion some years ago, former chief minister and leader of the opposition Okram Ibobi Singh welcomed the move.
Imphal’s airport is strategically important as it can connect to most of Southeast Asian countries, he said.
Ibobi also informed that they had even proposed to develop around four arrow bridges while developing the International terminal and use the existing terminal for domestic.
Meanwhile, Regional Executive Director Sanjeev Jindal of Airport Authority of India when contacted said, the airport in Imphal will be developed with state of the art infrastructure having its own systems to harvest water and waste management.
The said project is expected to start by the end of this year and it has a target to complete it within two and half year time.
Imphal airport, located about 7 km south of the state capital is the second largest and second busiest airport in the Northeast after Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International airport.
the airport connects north-eastern India with the country's major cities such as Bangalor, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai. More than ten flights landed at the airport daily for different destinations.
It may be noted that the Union Civil Aviation Ministry has approved of starting international flights between Imphal and Mandalay Township in northern Myanmar.
In June 2019, the Myanmar-based private airline, Air KBZ, expressed its willingness to operate an international flight service between Imphal and Mandalay.
Air KBZ has already signed an understanding with the Imphal-based KB Enterprises.
