Rupsi Airport is an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

located in Rupsi (about from Gauripur town) situated at Kokrajhar district near the border of

Dhubri district Dhubri District (Pron:ˈdʊbri) is an administrative district in the Indian state of Assam. The district headquarters are located at Dhubri town which is situated at ~290 km from Guwahati. This was also the headquarters of erstwhile undivid ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

. This airport serves as a way for people of the lower part of Assam to travel to India's major cities and states. The airport also serves as a layover for those traveling to the

Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary Chakrashila Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary falling under Kokrajhar district and some adjacent areas of Dhubri district of Assam, India. It is famous for the golden langur and is the second protected habitat for golden langurs in Ind ...

, Ultapani Reserve Forest, Manas National Park, Jaldapara National Park in

Alipurduar Alipurduar is a city and a municipality in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the headquarters of the Alipurduar district. Situated on the east bank of Kaljani River on the foothills of the Himalayas, the city is a gateway to Bhutan and ...

District, and the

Buxa Tiger Reserve , photo = Buxa Tiger Reserve forest 2014.jpg , iucn_category = II , map = India West Bengal , map_width = , label = Buxa NP , label_position = right , location = West Bengal, India , nearest_city = Alipurduar , coordinates = , area_km ...

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 fou ...

History

The

Rupsi Airfield Rupsi Airfield is a former wartime United States Army Air Forces airfield in Dhubri, Assam, India used during World War II. It is now abandoned. References * Maurer, Maurer. Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala ...

was constructed by the British during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to supply arms, manpower, and ammunition to the Allied forces. It was used by the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

Tenth Air Force The Tenth Air Force (10 AF) is a unit of the U.S. Air Force, specifically a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). 10 AF is headquartered at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base/Carswell Field (formerly Carswel ...

in the China Burma India Theater. Regional airline Vayudoot was used to operate services to the airport in the 1980s but they withdrew services. The airport stopped functioning in 1984, after which the State government made unsuccessful attempts to revive the airport with the joint initiative of the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and the North Eastern Council (NEC). The World War II era airstrip has remained defunct since the 1980s. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) have begun work to revive the airfield which is expected to be operational from December 2019. Civil operations to the airport will begin under the Government's Regional Connectivity Scheme. Rupsi Airport Runway

The newly-launched domestic airlines

FlyBig flybig is a regional airline based in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. It is promoted by Gurugram-based Big Charter Private Limited. The airline began operations in December 2020 and is focused on connecting tier-2 cities within India. History Th ...

started their operations in the Northeast region on 8 May 2021. Initially, the flight services used to connected Rupsi to both Guwahati and Kolkata Airports only. In due course, other destinations of the Northeast will be covered. On 5 May 2021, FlyBig Airlines conducted a successful trial of its flight at Rupsi Airport. Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal along with BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary had laid the foundation stone of the project on 22 February 2019. An estimated cost of Rs. 70 crore was spent to make the airport suitable for the operation of

ATR-72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, Flight length, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by Aerospace manufacturer, aircraft manufacturer ATR (aircraft manufacturer), ATR (french: Avions de transport région ...

type of aircraft, including a terminal building. The infrastructure for the airport was made ready by October 2019. The AAI and IAF will jointly develop the airport for both civil and military operations. The IAF is also evaluating the feasibility of extending the runway to to enable the operation of fighter aircraft.

Airlines and destinations

Facilities

* The airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value (magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ari ...

. It has one paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

designated 05/23 which measures .

References

{{Airports in India Airports in Assam Kokrajhar Transport in Dhubri 1940s establishments in British India Military airbases established in the 1940s

History

Airlines and destinations

Facilities

See also

References