Welcome to Rupsi

The reopening of the Rupsi airport in western Assam and the introduction of flights connecting it directly to Guwahati and Kolkata must be considered as a very significant development on the connectivity infrastructure front in Assam and the North-eastern region. While there were as many as six operational airports across Assam till the reopening of Rupsi, people of the entire western Assam region had remained deprived of a vital mode of transportation for close to four decades since the Rupsi airport was abandoned in 1981. As a result, most people of these districts had to travel to Guwahati to catch a flight to any other destination of the country. Some also drove to the Bagdogra airport in North Bengal to catch a flight, all because the Rupsi airport was lying defunct. While one must put on record the fact that it was Urkhaw Gwra Brahma who had first strongly raised and proposed before the Government of India that the Rupsi airport be rebuilt and reopened, the local people also got into action to exert pressure on the Government by constituting the Rupsi Airport Revival Demand Committee. Built way back in the early 1940s as a vital combat airfield for the US Air Force during the Second World War, Rupsi played a very significant role in the transportation of equipment and troops to the Burma theatre as also as the Kohima-Imphal sector during that crucial period. Most of the airports in the Northeast, barring Guwahati, incidentally are gifts of the Second World War. There were numerous airfields and air-strips at various locations across the region during the Second World War, many of which have disappeared after lying abandoned for decades. The Rupsi airport, which can be aptly named after a legendary Bodo figure, should also be able to play an important role in the development of tourism in western Assam in addition to other trade and commerce activities.