Myanmar to build airport in Chin State

YANGON Myanmar’s parliament recently approved a bill presented by Ministry of Transport that will allow the construction of an airport in northern Chin State.
Myanmar Times reported the state remains the only one of the nation’s 14 states that is not served by domestic airlines.
The long-awaited airport has been talked about since at least 1934, when surveyors from the British colonial government identified a site near Falam township’s Surbon village as the best location for an airport.
It remained an airport on paper until 2010, when national elections gave Chin politicians a public platform to press for a new study on the feasibility of building an airport.
inside no 4The plan calls for a runway that will be able to accommodate aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 737, or A320 aircraft used by most domestic and regional airlines.
Chin State lags behind other states due to poor access and earlier was on a list of destinations that was off-limits to international tourists.
Fewer than 1,000 foreign tourists reportedly visited Chin State in 2013, but since then the government has relaxed travel restrictions in most areas, making the state much easier to access.
Chin State located in western Myanmar shares borders with Rakhine State in the south, Bangladesh in the southwest, Sagaing Division and Magway Division in the east, the Indian state of Manipur in the north and the Indian state of Mizoram in the west.
The state is a mountainous region with limited transport options. It will take three years to open the airport.

sourced:traveldailynews.asia