The Assam government had used a fleet of bulldozers and excavators to clear swathes of a tea estate for an “imaginary” airport, information provided by the Civil Aviation Ministry has revealed.
In a May 31 reply to an application under the Right to Information Act, the Ministry said it had not received any proposal for the construction of a greenfield airport at the Doloo Tea Estate near Silchar in southern Assam’s Cachar district.
By then, the authorities had uprooted some 30 lakh tea bushes for a civilian airport in order not to depend on the existing Kumbhirgram airport under operational control of the Indian Air Force.
