Mizoram mulls handing over state’s lone airport to AAI

Aizawl: Mizoram government led by Chief Minister Lalduhoma is taking steps to hand over the lone Lengpui Airport, now owned and being maintained by the state government, to the Airport Authority of India (AAI).
A meeting of the council of ministers decided that the state government should find ways and means to hand over the airport to the AAI and also the lone Zoram Medical College (ZMC) to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Lalduhoma had earlier said that the new government would go for privatisation and disinvestment to tide over the acute financial crisis being faced by the state government.
The new government believes that a small state like Mizoram having only limited sources of income can ill-afford to maintain the airport as its maintenance is extremely expensive, officials said.
Meanwhile, Home Minister K. Sapdanga has said the dropping zone reserved exclusively for VIPs in the Lengpui airport has been done away with and all the vehicles dropping passengers and baggage can now avail the dropping zone without any discrimination.
The state government also scrapped the Resource Mobilisation Department established by the previous Mizo National Front (MNF) government. Instead Mizoram Resource Mobilisation Committee (MRMC) was constituted to undertake the task of enhancing the state’s resources.
Chief Minister Lalduhoma, who also holds Planning and Programme Implementation and Finance departments, is chairman of the MRMC while former state chief secretary and retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Haukhuma Hauzel was appointed as Vice Chairman.
Hauzel is placed in the rank of a Minister of State and will draw a monthly salary of Re 1.