Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited Sets Durgapur as a New Urban Power Station

There has always been a great difference between the urban and rural township. Most of the rural towns in India are still underprivileged and lack facilities that the new age urban townships are entitled to enjoy. With the advent of the new Aerotropolis concept in India, there has been a dramatic change in the social and economic growth in the total infrastructure of the country. India has got its first ever Aerotropolis city by now. It is in the state of West Bengal, that a semi-urban town named Durgapur was lucky enough to get attention of a joint venture initiative launched by a Kolkata based company named Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL). 

Indeed the project developed on two parallel lanes. One went through developing an Airport city and another went through the development of a skycity named – Sujalaam. The Durgapur Aerotropolis project faced many hiccups in its initial stages but it finally got through and helped this city turn out to a true potential for the socio-economic developments of the whole region including the state of West Bengal. 

Aviation and airport cities are creating new urban power centres in the Middle East and Asia for quite some years. It was the first attempt taken by Mr. Partha Ghosh of Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited who had a dream to convert this semi-rural town into a fast and glowing Aerotropolis. BAPL went way beyond to this transformation and the resultant was a city with a renovated airport, skycity residential complex, shopping centres, educational hubs, entertainment centres, developed industrial sectors and a host of other amenities that are expected from an Aerotropolis. 

The Bengal Aerotropolis as developed in Durgapur has an area of about 2182 acres. The airport itself is spread over an area of 650 acres, having its runway built over 2800 meters and the passenger terminal building over an area of 5750 square meters. The airport’s terminal has food and beverage outlets, clinic and pharmacy, Wi-Fi services, a hotel booking counter, helipad and some parking bays. Mr. Partha Ghosh said that BAPL project has received technological knowhow from Singapore’s Changi Airport International, to get this airport developed. This company had great experience in developing such projects in past and had developed Aerotropolis projects for Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai etc.  

In parallel to this, a skycity was formed and titled as Sujalaam. It has all the features that make a city and airport city. It is supposed to draw new areas of development in the fields of services, IT, education, telecommunications, retail, hospitality, agro-processing and bio technology. It also has growth potential for modern housing infrastructure. 

Author’s bio: Mr. Partha Ghosh is the Managing Director of Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited – an infrastructure company. Mr. Partha Ghosh and BAPL are in the duty of identifying and developing the Aerotropolis Projects in India.