The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has taken up projects of Rs. 3,500 crore for expansion and upgradation of the airports in the North East region. The Regional Executive Director of AAI Sanjeev Jindal said this in Agartala yesterday.<br />''<br />''While addressing a press conference, Mr Jindal said the AAI has allocated Rs 1,250 crore for Guwahati airport, Rs 650 crore for Imphal (Manipur), Rs 500 crore for Agartala (Tripura), Rs 650 crore for a Greenfield airport at Hollongi in Arunachal Pradesh, and Rs 450 crore for Lengpui Airport in Mizoram and other airports in the region.<br />''<br />''He said the AAI has been trying its best to complete these projects worth Rs 3,500 crore at the earliest. Compared to the mountainous terrain and expenditure to develop roads and laying railway tracks in the Northeast India, air connectivity is the cheapest and most time saving solutions of connectivity in the region.<br />''<br />''He said that all modern facilities would be installed in these airports as several international airliners have shown interests to operate flights from the region.<br />''<br />''He further said that under the ongoing project worth Rs. 500 crore in the Agartala airport, renamed last year as Maharaja Bir Bikram Airport, full-body scanner would be installed here for the first time in India.<br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">Also, the current length of the runway of the Agartala airport, which is 2,286 meter long, would be expanded up to 3,000 meter, Mr Jindal said. He added that the air connectivity developments in North East Region will soon play a 'change agent' role towards overall development of the region in terms of tourism industry, industrialization, trades, and employment generation etc.</span><br />