A new airport with heliport facilities likely to be built in Mizoram to utilise it for civil aviation as well as Indian Air Force (IAF) purposes, officials said on Wednesday. A Mizoram government official said that the IAF’s Eastern Air Command chief, Air Marshal S. P. Dharkar held a meeting with Chief Minister Zoramthanga and discussed some security matters in Mizoram and in other states of the northeast region.

The Chief Minister and the Air Marshal discussed the setting up of a new airport with heliport facilities that can be utilised for civil aviation as well as Indian Air Force purposes.

Zoramthanga said that the government has already identified two locations for the proposed airport in the southern part of Mizoram, which shares borders with Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Surrounded by the lush green mountain, the medium size Lengpui Airport in Mizoram facilitates connecting the mountainous state by air with Guwahati, New Delhi, and Kolkata. Upgradation of various works of the airport is currently underway under a project of ‘Improvement and Upgradation of Operational and Non-Operational facilities’ funded under ‘North East Special Infrastructure Development Schemes (NESIDS) at a cost of Rs 19.59 crore, and is expected to be completed by December.

IANS