Durgapur City – India’s First Aerotropolis Has Set a Mark of Distinction to State Economy

Durgapur is a small city in the state of West Bengal. It is a less populated city. The city is located in the Burdwan district and has an area of about 154 sq. kilometres. It is well connected by road, rail and air from the metropolitan city of Kolkata. Durgapur is the second planned city in India. It is also a hub for many industries and a home to a few steel plants among which The DSP (Durgapur Steel Plant) is the biggest one. The city is under Municipal Corporation and is surrounded by a few other industrial and business towns, among which a few are – Andal, Raniganj and Asansol. The city of Durgapur has seen much technological advancements since a couple of decades. Many new industries have been formed that have boosted the economy of the city as well as the state as a whole. Among the major developments lies the transformation of this old city into a newly built Aerotropolis.

Durgapur was chosen to become India’s first Aerotropolis city. It was a company named Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited (BAPL), which visualised this Aerotropolis project’s full potential and started working on it in the year 2006. It took the company about full nine years to materialise the concept and come up with a blooming Aerotropolis just as they are seen in other parts of the world. BAPL indeed took the help of a foreign collaboration to develop this city into an aero-city. The company took help from a Singapore based firm named – Changi Airports International, which had prior experience in developing Aerotropolis cities around Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong. Changi Airports International had given its expertise to the BAPL project that in turn gave it some new heights. This aero-city has now a newly developed airport that is named after the famous poet of West Bengal. The airport has been named as Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport (KNI Airport). 

With the development of this airport, the class of people who were benefited the most, were the executives of industries/companies, who started taking the 45 minutes flights from Kolkata to Durgapur. The KNI airport at Durgapur has gained its much popularity since that time. Mr Partha Ghosh had conceptualised the Bengal Aerotropolis Project to help it boost the socio-economic conditions of the state. It was Mr Partha Ghosh only who also helped giving the region its first skycity named Sujalaam skycity that is one of the marks of the future in West Bengal.

Author’s bio: Mr Partha Ghosh as the Managing Director of Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited has helped in the economic developments of the Durgapur City. With an aim towards providing affordable housing for all, Mr Partha Ghosh also developed a high rise residential complex within the Aerotropolis project that is named it as Sujalaam skycity.