Bengal Aerotropolis – Pioneering the Nation’s Aerotropolis Revolution

Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL), a company engaged in the developments of Aerotropolis projects in India, was formed in the year 2007. Mr Partha Ghosh as the Managing Director (MD) of this company planned the formation of an Aerotropolis city around the small town of Durgapur in West Bengal. To make his dream of developing Aerotropolis cities in India come true, this was the very first initiative taken by Mr Partha Ghosh. According to him, there are similar projects in the pipeline and the country is going to see the formation of the next Aerotropolis very soon after the launch of the Durgapur Aerotropolis. It has been planned in the state of Punjab and is going to be formed near Ludhiana.

Aerotropolis is not a very new concept for other countries, as it is for India. It was the year 2000 when the world saw its first Aerotropolis. Dr. John D Kasarda was the person to introduce this Aerotropolis concept to the world where the main theme and focus of the project remains over airport driven economic development. The Bengal’s Aerotropolis project too had similar concept behind its development. An Aerotropolis or better say, an aero-city was planned around a small town of Durgapur. It was in papers first when Mr Partha Ghosh while forming the Bengal Aerotropolis Project, visualized all the amenities of a modern Aerotropolis in a small town as such where industries rule. It is a very small town with a mere population of about 3 lakhs individuals. It was a daring act to plan an Aerotropolis around such a small town. But today the country takes pride of it. 

The project helped develop an ultra-modern airport in a nearby city called Andal. The airport occupies a total area of about 600 acres and the cost of developing it accounted for about Rs.650 crores. After the development of this airport and a high rise city around it, BAPL has now started running regular flights from Durgapur to Kolkata and extended it to New Delhi as well. Yes, Mr Partha Ghosh indeed formed the Sujalaam Skycity as well which is an integral part of this Aerotropolis project. The airport is able to handle about 1 million passengers per year. It accommodates forty-two Seater aircraft and Boeing 707 both. Very soon BAPL is going to start flight services to other big metropolis cities of India as well.

The airport and its other operational regions are so exceptionally designed that it can be compared to just any best Aerotropolis around the world. All Aerotropolis have the same mission of generating revenues through the air services and putting in the generated profits to the developmental activities associated with the airport-city. The Durgapur Aerotropolis has already met this mission and has seen much success by now.

Author’s bio: Mr Partha Ghosh is the sole person behind the success of Bengal Aerotropolis Project. It was all due to systematic thought process of Mr Partha Ghosh that the Sujalaam Skycity was formed with all the amenities of a modern Aerotropolis.