The Guwahati airport, the only international airfield in the northeastern region, is being prepared to handle about one crore passengers every year. The cost of the project is Rs 1,232 crore and the project is scheduled to be completed by 2022.
Officials of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) said that the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport, earlier known as Guwahati Airport, currently handles over 6 million passengers annually and the under construction terminal building would be capable of handling 4,300 domestic and 200 international passengers per day and about 10 million passengers annually.
"Equipped with 64 check-in counters, 20 self-check in
kiosks, six baggage carousels, in-line baggage security screening system and 10
aero-bridges, the new terminal would be an energy efficient building," an
official said.
The AAI said in a release that Guwahati is one of the fastest growing cities in India and also has connectivity with the South-East Asia region, and is thus going to attract more passengers in the coming years.
Going against the general trend, air passenger movement in India has been growing since July, claimed a report.
There are 12 airports in the northeast - Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Tezpur (all Assam), Tezu and Pasighat (Arunachal Pradesh), Agartala (Tripura), Imphal (Manipur), Shillong (Meghalaya), Dimapur (Nagaland) and Lengpui (Mizoram).
The AAI shared glowing statistics. Guwahati has registered 111 per cent increase
in airline passengers from 2,812 on July 10 to 5,924 on September 10. The
Agartala airport witnessed a 104 per cent increase, Assam's Dibrugarh 126 per
cent and Imphal 66.5 per cent.