Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport , is a domestic airport serving the cities of

Durgapur Durgapur () is a planned tier-II urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the fourth largest urban agglomeration after Kolkata, Asansol and Siliguri in West Bengal ...

and

Asansol Asansol is a (Tier-II) metropolitan city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest and most populated city of West Bengal and the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bar ...

. It is located at

Andal, Paschim Bardhaman Andal is a census town in the Andal CD block in the Durgapur subdivision of the Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Location Andal is located at . It has an average elevation of 76 metres (249 ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

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 ...

. It is named after Bengali poet

Kazi Nazrul Islam Kazi Nazrul Islam ( bn, কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম, ; 24 May 1899 – 29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, Bengali literature, writer, Bangladeshi music, musician, and is the national poet of Bangladesh. Nazrul is regarded as one ...

. The airport is roughly from Durgapur and from Asansol. The airport's hinterland comprises the towns of

Bardhaman Bardhaman (, ) is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Purba Bardhaman district, having become a district capital during the period of British rule. Burdwan, an alternative name for the city, ...

Bankura Bankura () is a city and a municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura district. Etymology In the Mahabharata, Bankura was described as Suhmobhumi. The word or (in Nagari: rāḍh) was introduced af ...

, Bishnupur,

Purulia Purulia is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Purulia district. It is located on the north of the Kangsabati River. Geography Location Purulia is located at . It has an average elev ...

Sainthia Sainthia (formerly Nandipur) is a city and a municipality in Suri Sadar subdivision of Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. The city is known as business city of Birbhum district. The city is under the jurisdiction of Sainthia po ...

, Suri,

Bolpur Bolpur is a city and a municipality in Birbhum district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bolpur subdivision. Bolpur municipal area includes Santiniketan, Sriniketan and Prantik. The city is known as a Cultural a ...

Rampurhat Rampurhat is a city and a municipality in Birbhum district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Rampurhat subdivision. According to Census 2011 Rampurhat is the third most populous city in Birbhum district and 82 ...

and

Dhanbad Dhanbad is the second-most populated city in the Indian state of Jharkhand after Jamshedpur. It ranks as the 42nd largest city in India and is the 33rd largest million-plus urban agglomeration in India. Dhanbad shares its land borders with Pa ...

and Bokaro in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

. It is part of the country's first private sector

Aerotropolis An aerotropolis is a metropolitan subregion whose infrastructure, land use, and economy are centered on an airport. It fuses the terms "aero-" (aviation) and "metropolis". Like the traditional metropolis made up of a central city core and its ou ...

, being developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL). The airport was officially inaugurated on 19 September 2013 by the

Chief Minister of West Bengal The Chief Minister of West Bengal is the representative of the Government of India in the state of West Bengal and the head of the executive branch of the Government of West Bengal. The chief minister is head of the Council of Ministers and ap ...

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

. According to 2018-19 data, Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport is the 3rd busiest airport of West Bengal and the 61st busiest airport of India.

History

Construction planning

The project was conceived in 2006–07 during the Left Front government. The construction of the airport was completed on 2013. But for several reasons, the airport did not receive final operational clearance from the aviation regulator DGCA until 24 April 2015. Regular Commercial Flights started from 2015.

Commencement of the airport

On 10 May 2015, Prime Minister

Narendra Modi Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...

became the first passenger to use the new airport when he flew out to Delhi, aboard an

Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

VIP aircraft, even before commercial airlines started their regular service from the airport. Scheduled commercial operation commenced on 18 May 2015. Another airline, Zoom Air, also begun flights on the Delhi –

–

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

route but after three months it stopped its flight due to lack of passengers. Finally the airport gained popularity in 2018 with connections to Delhi and Hyderabad by Air India and to the destinations of

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

and

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

in October 2019 by

SpiceJet SpiceJet is an Indian budget airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana. It is the second largest airline in the country by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 13.6% as of March 2019. The airline operates 630 daily fli ...

Plan

The airport has been built over 650 acres (can be expanded more at the future) at a cost of . The airport has 70% open green space for facilitating fresh green environment within the airport area.

Ownership

The State Government also has a 26.05% stake through West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation.

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

's Changi Airports International (CAI) has a 30.21% stake in BAPL. Other Indian promoters include

IL&FS Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is an Indian state-funded infrastructure development and finance company. It was created by public sector banks and insurance companies. It operates through more than 250 subsidiaries i ...

, Pragati Social Infrastructure & Development, Pragati 47, Lend Lease Company India and Citystar Infrastructure.

Infrastructure

Air Traffic Control, KNI Airport, Andal, Durgapur

Terminal

The 5,750 square metre passenger terminal building has a capacity of 1 million passengers per annum and can be expanded in the future to a capacity to 2.5 million per annum. It has six check-in counters with Common Use Terminal equipment (CUTE) in the departure lounge and two baggage conveyor belts at the arrival hall. The airport is equipped with category VI firefighting and rescue capability.

Runway

The airport's 2,800-meter runway (which is expandable up to 3,315-metre) is equipped with a CAT I

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

(ILS) and can handle narrow-body aircraft like

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

and

. The

airport apron The airport apron, apron, flight line, ramp, or tarmac is the area of an airport where aircraft are parked, unloaded or loaded, refueled, boarded, or maintained. Although the use of the apron is covered by regulations, such as lighting on vehic ...

has four parking bays and a Helipad.

Airlines and destinations

Connectivity

Roads

The airport is conveniently connected to Durgapur and Asansol through

National Highway 19 Route 19, or Highway 19, may refer to: For roads named "A19", see list of A19 roads. International * Asian Highway 19 * European route E19 * European route E019 Canada * Alberta Highway 19 * British Columbia Highway 19 * Manitoba Highway 19 ...

. There are dedicated transport options available to reach the airport and reach passengers’ desired destinations from the airport.

Railway

The closest railway station to the airport is , which is around 10 km away from the airport.

Statistics

Busiest routes

Accidents and Incidents

* On 1 May 2022, a

Boeing 737–800 aircraft VT-SLH operating from

as SG-945, encountered a severe turbulence while descending at Durgapur, injuring 14 passengers and 3 flight attendants out of 195 occupants (including two pilots and four flight attendants). A passenger, Akbar Ansari (48), died of a spinal injury five months later. https://simpleflying.com/spicejet-turbulence-passenger-death/

References

{{Transport in India Airports in West Bengal Kazi Nazrul Islam Transport in Asansol Transport in Durgapur 2013 establishments in West Bengal Airports established in 2013