Agartala, April 21, 2023: The international flight services between Tripura and Bangladesh will start as soon as the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Ministry of Home Affairs give clearance for immigration centre and deploy 120 CISF personnel at Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport here in Agartala city, said Tripura Transport Minister Sushanta Chowdhury on Friday.

Being asked about the starting of international flight services from MBB Airport, minister Chowdhury said that the pending obstacles to start international flights from Agartala are expected to be solved within two months.

“The most renowned airlines company ‘SpiceJet’ has been awarded the contract to fly passenger flights between Agartala-Chittagong route. The Tripura government had decided to pay Rs 15 crore as gap fund to the SpiceJet airlines per annum and so far, Rs 3.85 crore has already being paid. Our attempt is to start 24 hours flight services from MBB Airport in Agartala, but having a shortage of 120 central industrial security force (CISF) personnel. In this regard, I wrote letter to union Home minister Amit Shah for deploying required CISF personnel at MBB Airport”, he said.

Transport minister also said the official delegation of the Ministry of Home Affairs had visited MBB Airport on April 10 last and inspected the infrastructural facilities available to set up immigration centre at the airport premises.

“Once, the immigration centre is set up at MBB Airport, international flight services can be started. In this regard, I had also talked with union Civil Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. During my visit to Delhi, I intended to meet him and apprise about the necessity to start international flight services from airport, but he was infected with COVID. However, we are expecting that the problems related to starting of international flight services will be solved within a span of two months”, he also added.

Apart from this, Chowdhury also said that the construction of railway line from Belonia in South Tripura district to Feni river connecting India and Bangladesh i.e. zero line is about 2.92 KMs has also been discussed with union Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the detailed project report (DPR) has been completed. However, the Bangladesh’s part is about 27 KMs.