Air Services between Agartala and Silchar resume
Agartala Oct 26: Direct air services linking Agartala with Bagdogra in West Bengal are set to begin on Sunday evening, while flights between Agartala and Silchar in southern Assam will restart on October 28 after nearly 30 years, officials announced.
According to S. Haokip Jempu, Assistant General Manager of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Agartala, Air India Express will operate the new Agartala–Bagdogra route from the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) Airport starting Sunday.
Bagdogra Airport, located in Siliguri near North Bengal’s popular hill station Darjeeling, will enhance connectivity for travellers. IndiGo will run the Agartala–Silchar route twice weekly—on Tuesdays and Fridays—from October 28, marking the return of air services between the two Northeastern cities after almost three decades.
With these new additions, Agartala will have direct flight connections to 10 cities nationwide. Currently, the Tripura capital is linked by air to Kolkata, Delhi, Imphal, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, and Chennai.
AAI officials noted that Agartala’s MBB Airport ranks tenth among Indian airports in the customer satisfaction index. The airport handles 13 to 16 daily flights and accommodates around 4,000–5,000 passengers each day.
The new terminal building, spanning 30,000 square metres, is equipped to serve both domestic and international passengers during peak hours. MBB Airport is the second busiest in the Northeast, after Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.
Of the 23 airports in the region, 17 are operational—including those in Guwahati, Silchar, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Shillong, Dimapur, Lengpui, Pasighat, Tezu, and Pakyong.
Earlier, Tripura Transport and Tourism Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said the state government has committed financial assistance for a proposed Agartala–Chittagong (Bangladesh) service by SpiceJet. The government allocated Rs 15 crore to AAI for the project and paid Rs 3.85 crore as a three-month advance in December 2022. Additionally, 25 police personnel have been deployed to support the Bureau of Immigration.
However, political unrest in Bangladesh since August last year has delayed the launch of the Agartala–Chittagong route.
Historian and author Pannalal Roy mentioned that the land for airports in Agartala, Kailashahar, and other areas of Tripura was donated by the state’s former royal family.
“During World War II, King Bir Bikram extended support to the Allied forces and sent a Tripura Army contingent to assist them. Airports in Agartala and Kailashahar were built to aid their operations,” Roy said, adding that Japanese fighter planes bombed the Agartala airport twice in 1943. (With inputs from IANS)
