Airport to be revamped by May 2011

“The Greenfield airport between Asansol and Durgapur will also give a new dimension to this sector,” the minister said.

The up gradation work at the Dibrugarh airport will soon be completed, which would help in improving the communication with the north-eastern states, said Patel.

As for the Coochbehar airport in north Bengal, Patel said although the airport was ready, no airline company had shown any interest in operating flights from this destination.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, however, urged the aviation minister to try and convince the airline companies to operate from Coochbehar, which would turn out to be a big boost to north Bengal and north-east.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the up gradation of the Kolkata airport would be in consonance with the “Look East policy” since the city was the gateway to the north-east and the other South East Asian countries.

The chief minister also stressed on the need to improve the infrastructure in the state in order to invite more foreign investments. “We have received the maximum investments from Japan.”

The up gradation work includes a new integrated passenger terminal building, extension of secondary runway and a new air traffic control building along with a new technical block among others. The project cost has been estimated at Rs 1,942 crore. The contract for the work has already been awarded to a Bangkok-based consortium ITD-CEM.

‘No place for campaign linking Islam with terror’
External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that there is no connection between Islam and terrorism and added that any such campaign relating the two is misleading and should be despised.

Speaking at a function to mark the 200 years of the translation of Quran into Bengali in Kolkata on Monday, Mukherjee said, “I personally believe that terrorism is the enemy of humanity. Islam is a religion which propagates universal brotherhood, humanity and equality then how can terrorism be related to Islam?”

Mukherjee who represents Jangipur, a Muslim dominated constituency, in the Lok Sabha, added: “Islam is an inseparable part of our 5,000-year-old civilisation and because of this 25 crore Muslims reside in the country whose patriotism is not less than any of us.”