The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided not to renew the licence for the Cooch Behar airport from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), leading to a fresh controversy in the district with Trinamul and BJP trading charges.

According to sources in the AAI, the licence to run the Cooch Behar airport that is issued by the DGCA is valid till January 27 next year. However, as there is no flight service at the airport, the AAI has decided not to renew the licence right now.

“It is a decision made at a higher level. We have nothing to comment on it,” said Moloy Kanti Dey, the airport director of Cooch Behar.

Sources said that though there are no flight operations, the AAI had to bear expenses for the airport’s upkeep, a major reason for not renewing the licence.

“That is why it has been decided not to renew the license. In due course, if there are proposals from airline companies to fly from here, the airport can be reopened again. Similar decisions have been made for some other smaller airports elsewhere as well,” said a source.

In Cooch Behar, the airport had been developed by the royals. Flight services had come to a halt 25 years ago, in 1995.

Since then, efforts had been made a number of times to resume flight services, but eventually those didn’t work out.

In July last year, Nisith Pramanik, the BJP MP of Cooch Behar, had landed at the airport on a nine-seater flight and had assured that flight services would resume soon. This led to an impasse between the state and the Centre, with flight services not taking off.

“One of the reasons for the non-resumption of flights at the Cooch Behar airport is the small runway. The length of the runway is such that at best only 20 to 25-seater plane can land or take off from the airport,” said an official.

Now, the recent decision of the AAI to not renew the airport’s licence has come as a fresh disappointment to local residents and created a fresh political tussle between Trinamul and BJP.
Both the parties are blaiming the other for the airport’s debacle.

Malati Rava, the district BJP chief, accused the Trinamul government of being “politically vindictive.”

“It is because of the state’s lackadaisical attitude and political vindictiveness that flight services could not start from here. Last year, our MP had come on a flight and had spoken with a private airliner to start the services but the state government withdrew policemen and fire services,” said Rava.

Trinamul leaders on the other hand, accused the Centre of “non-cooperation”. “Our chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) had put in efforts a number of times to make the Cooch Behar airport operational,” said Abdul Jalil Ahmed, a district leader of the party. “But the Centre never helped to make the airport operational, and now, it has planned not to renew the licence. Such a decision by the AAI, which is after all a central government agency, will not go down well with Cooch Behar residents,” Ahmed added.