Baljek Airport (also known as Tura Airport) is a public airport located at Baljek, North-east of
Tura in
Meghalaya
Meghalaya (, or , meaning "abode of clouds"; from Sanskrit , "cloud" + , "abode") is a state in northeastern India. Meghalaya was formed on 21 January 1972 by carving out two districts from the state of Assam: (a) the United Khasi Hills and J ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
.
The proposal for the airport was sent to the Central Government in 1983 and the project was sanctioned in 1995. The airport was inaugurated in October 2008.
It was built at a cost of Rs 12.52 crore and was initially designed to handle 20 seater aircraft like the
Dornier 228
The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH (later DASA Dornier, Fairchild-Dornier) from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 19 ...
.
The
Airports Authority of India (AAI) is developing the airport for operation of
ATR 42/
ATR 72
The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed ...
type of aircraft. The 3,300 foot runway will be extended by another 1,200 feet. A total of 58 acres of additional land was acquired at a cost of Rs 2.58 crore to aid the expansion of the airport.
No scheduled commercial air service are available at the Baljek Airport at this time. The nearest airport is
Guwahati Airport
Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport , also known as Guwahati International Airport and formerly as 'Borjhar Airport', is an international airport serving Guwahati, the largest city of North-East India in Assam, India, and is als ...
which is approx. 180 KM from Tura and it is said to be operating by the end of 2022.
References
{{Airports in India
Airports in Meghalaya
Tura, Meghalaya
2008 establishments in Meghalaya
Airports established in 2008