Kushinagar International Airport is the longest runway (3.2 km long and 45 m wide) airport in the state. Four large airplanes can stand on the apron. Its runway capacity is 8 flights (4 arrivals and 4 departures) per hour. Efforts are being made to make flying possible at the airport not only during the day but also at night. Its interim passenger terminal building is built on 3600 sqm. Its peak hour passenger capacity is 300 passengers per hour. This airport is built on 589 acres at a cost of Rs 260 crore. With its activation, a big platform for tourism development, investment, employment is being created.
Inaugurating it on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as the result of decades of hopes and aspirations. Actually, politics was going on for the last 26 years regarding this airport. The inauguration of the airport at the hands of the PM has not only ended that game of politics, but has also become a means of gaining momentum for the overall development of Purvanchal. The Prime Minister has given the gift of the third international airport to the state through Kushinagar.
In view of the strategic importance of Kushinagar, the British government built an airstrip in 1945-46. But politics on this started in the 90s, on 5 September 1995, the then Chief Minister Mayawati laid the foundation stone for the restoration work of the airstrip. The very next month, the then Union Civil Aviation Minister in the Congress government, Ghulam Nabi Azad, laid the foundation stone of the terminal on 10 October 1995. The terminal building was completed in three years, and two radars were installed. In 2008, the then Chief Minister Mayawati promised an international airport at Kushinagar and issued an ordinance for land acquisition in March 2010, but the plan did not materialise. In 2013, the SP government invited tenders for the construction of the airport, but no one came forward for the law and order situation of the state. In 2014, the SP government acquired 163 hectares of land. The land was given to the Airport Authority of India in May 2015.
Chief Minister Yogi came in 2017, again got his wings
In the year 2017, the government led by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the state with the former majority showed keen interest in the construction of Kushinagar International Airport. After several rounds of meetings between the Central and State Governments, an MoU was signed on 5 March 2019 between the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Airport Authority of India for the Greenfield Airport. On 10 October 2019, the state government handed over this airport to the airport authority. On June 24, 2020, the Union Cabinet declared it an international airport and also granted DGCA license on February 22, 2021.
Many more schemes gifted to Purvanchal
The inauguration of the International Airport, the foundation stone of the Government Medical College and 12 other development projects have been received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday. With this, Purvanchal is ready to take a new flight of development. If the historical glory of Tathagata Lord Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana site from the International Airport will be more prosperous, then the medical college going to be built here will be a life-saving gift in the lives of 40 lakh people. Along with this, projects related to flood protection, roads and knowledge centers will increase the prosperity of the district.
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