Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal, H K Dwivedi, today said that a new Airport will be coming up at Hasimara in the Dooars for the development of air connectivity with three districts Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar. Addressing the North Bengal Business Meet 2023, Mr Dwivedi said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during her last visit to Alipurduar took initiative for setting up an airport at Hasimara.

“We have already earmarked a private tea garden there to manage required land for the proposed airport. The state government has recently revised the compensation amount for tea bushes for resumption of leasehold tea land. We would be able to manage the required land and hand it over to Airport Authority of India,” Mr Dwivedi said. Mr Dwivedi also pointed out that the state government has handed over 100 acres of land to Airport Authority and a new airport in an international level will be coming up soon in Bagdogra.

The state government has stressed air connectivity for North Bengal, he said and discussed about the present position of Malda, Balurghat and Cooch Behar airport. According to him, the state has agreed to provide subsidized support to run flights in Malda airport. He also stressed the need to increase the length of runway of Cooch Behar airport.

On the other hand, on the issue of road connectivity, Chief Secretary has pointed out some bottlenecks for the expansion project of national highway connecting Guwahati in Assam. In his keynote address Chief Secretary highlighted the multiple initiatives of the State Government that have been taken up in different departments under the guidance of Chief Minister. He also highlighted the importance of MSME sector in employment generation.

All land acquisition problems related to Barauni Guwahati pipeline have been resolved and city gas infra being developed. HPCL will be able to provide city gas to Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri and Malda. In other NB districts, BPCL will provide. Session on sector specific presentation: In this session Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/Secretary of participating Departments apprised the entrepreneurs of the initiatives and programmes of the concerned departments and also highlighted on the upcoming project/initiatives of the department concerned through a PowerPoint presentation.