The Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport in Agartala will soon be declared as an international airport by the Centre while efforts are on to make the two unused airports in Tripura operational, Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury informed the Assembly on Thursday while referring to the initiatives of the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Replying to queries raised by Leader of Opposition (LoP) Jitendra Chaudhury and Congress MLA Birajit Sinha, Chowdhury said it was decided that after the declaration of MBB Airport as an international airport, flights would be operated between Agartala and Chittagong in Bangladesh.

“But in view of the unrest in Bangladesh, we are not certain whether it would be possible to operate flights to the neighbouring country,” the Minister informed the House.

Earlier it was decided that SpiceJet would operate flights on the Agartala-Chittagong route and accordingly the Tripura government had decided to provide Rs 15 crore to the Airport Authority of India (AAI), he added.

The state government paid Rs 3.85 crore to the AAI as three months’ advance in December 2022, besides providing 25 police personnel to the Bureau of Immigration under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Chowdhury said.

The Minister also said the Civil Aviation Ministry has taken initiatives to operationalise the Kailasahar and Kamalpur airports in Unakoti district of Tripura, which are both unused now.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the new integrated terminal of MBB Airport built at a cost of Rs 438 crore on January 4, 2022.

Currently, 16 flights operate from the MBB Airport with over 4,000 passenger footfalls daily.

With a built-up area of 30,000 sq mt, the new terminal has been designed to handle both domestic and international passengers simultaneously during peak hours.

The Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport in Guwahati and the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport in Imphal currently enjoy international status in the Northeastern region.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb recently urged Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu to grant international status to the MBB Airport at the earliest.

“The Tripura government has provided necessary funds to the AAI to start flight operations on the Agartala-Chittagong (Bangladesh) route. The airport can handle 1,000 domestic and 200 international passengers during peak hours,” Deb had informed the Lok Sabha.

Private carrier Air India Express earlier this week introduced daily flights on the Agartala-Guwahati-Delhi-Kolkata route. The service will facilitate people from Tripura and other northeastern states who visit West Bengal regularly for medical treatment, tourism, education, business and other purposes.

Located 20 km north of the state capital, the airport earlier known as Singerbill Airport was renamed after Maharaja Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur by the Union government in July 2018.

The airport was built in 1942 on land donated by then Tripura king Bir Bikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. It was used as a technical base for the Royal Air Force during World War II.