From our Staff Correspondent:

Dibrugarh, July 6: The citizens of Dibrugarh have demanded development of Civil aviation as well economy of Dibrugarh and surrounding districts, including Arunachal Pradesh.

Submitting a memorandum to Dibrugarh Deputy Commissioner, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Kandarpa Kumar Deka, Local MLA, Prasanta Phukan, Chairman, Bharatiya Chah Parishad, Monoj Jalan, President of Eastern Assam Chambers of Commerce and Industries, Bhudev Phukan, Secretary of Business Association, Ram Nivas Swamy,Principal, Salt Brook School, Ajoy Sahu, President, India Club and Theatrical Institution, Soumitra Kumar Sen, General Secretary, Akhil Assam Bhojpuri Yuba Chatra Sanmillan, Gama Paswan, Teacher and social activist, Nabajyoti Kakoti and others, requested the Deputy Commissioner to take immediate steps in meeting a few demands, which comprised of  immediate introduction of a flight from Mohanbari Airport to Guwahati  and the commercial capital of the country, Mumbai, in the morning, preferably around 9 am.  The citizens also demanded introduction of cargo flights from Dibrugarh Airport, which they felt would help the people of Upper Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and rejuvenate the sagging economy of the region.

“The people of this region have to buy goods at much higher rates in comparison to other parts of the country as goods arrive mostly in trucks from outside Assam. This takes around 7 days in transit and due to frequent calls for bandhs, perishable items get damaged in transit”, the memorandum added. Moreover, the introduction of cargo flights in Mohanbari Airport, citizens served the purpose of transforming itself into a nodal point for economic development of this region with full utilization of potential the districts of Upper Assam has to offer, said the memorandum.

The memorandum further demanded opening up of a full-fledged office of Assam Tourism Development Corporation(ATDC) at the airport premises and introduction of pre-paid taxi service to avoid harassment of tourists by private taxi owners. “The setting up of ATDC office would provide correct information about different places of the region to the tourists”, the memorandum added.

Quoting reports published in the Economic Times, that Dibrugarh Airport emerged as the third Airport, out of the total 46 airports in the country, in terms of growth of passengers with an increase of 47 per cent in 2009-2010, citizens asserted in the memorandum that successful implementation of the demands as mentioned in the memorandum would certainly benefit the passengers as well economy of the region.