BY DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORTY
KOLKATA, 30 JULY 2023:
Come tomorrow, West Bengal is all set to get its second cargo terminal after Kolkata in Andal near Durgapur.
West Bengal minister of industries, commerce and enterprises, women and child development and social welfare, Dr.Sashi Panja will formally inaugurate the Unit -1 of the newly set up Cargo Terminal -1 of Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport on 31 st July at Andal.
Speaking to The Travel and Tourism Times, Mr. Kailash Mondal, Director of Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport in Andal near Durgapur has said that India’s leading domestic carier, Indigo Airlines has bagged the approval from the country’s regulator in civil aviation sector to carry cargo from 31 July.
“ We have also applied for the bigger cargo terminal project , i.e the Regulatory Agent (RA) to the regulatory authority of the Indian aviation sector so that as the airport operators we ourselves can operate the cargo handling in different aircrafts. Initially, Indigo Airlines have bagged the approval and on Monday the terminal will be inaugurated and maiden cargo operations will begin,” informed Mr. Kailash Mondal.
Indigo Airlines will handle cargo from Monday with its own Indigo Self Ground Handling unit. Indigo operates daily flight services from Andal ( Durgapur) to Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai.
“ Each of these flights of Indigo may take two to three tonnes of Belly Cargo in these four routes and vice versa,”added Mr. Kailash Mondal.
Mr. Sambhu Nath Jha, Secretary of Asansol Chamber of Commerce, Mr. V.K.Dhall, Vice President of National Rifle Association of India, Mr. Jagdish Bagri, secretary of Burdwan West District Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Mr. Sandeep Bhalotia, national VP of Indian Council of Small Industries etc have welcomed the inauguration of the new cargo terminal.
District Magistrate and Collector of Paschim Bardhaman, S.Arun Kumar, Comissioner of Police of Aasansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate , Neelkantham Sudhir Kumar will also be present.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wants to set up Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport as the second international airport after the Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport in Kolkata.
The airport has night landing facilities and is of 4- C category and can handle four lakhs passengers annually. State Chief Secretary, Hari Krishna Dwiwedi has been appointed as the chairman.
Street lighting system to the approach roads to the airport has been revamped and the road connectivity have improved immensely from both sides of the highways. Bus, Taxi, Toto etc are now available at the airport and SBSTC is running buses from City Centre in Durgapur to KNI Airport in Andal. EV charging station has been set up.
The state government has also increased its stake in the projects of Bengal Aerotropolis Project Limited (BAPL), the private operators of the airport. Many new features have been added in the airport already.
Miss Mamata Banerjee wants international flight services to operate from Andal to South East Asian cities like Dhaka, Singapore, Kathmandu, Bangkok etc.
From October this year Indigo will also connect Rurh of India ( Durgapur- Asansol) to the Pink City of India, Jaipur in Rajasthan. Besides Indigo, Spicejet is the other operator, while Air India has not returned back after 2020.
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