Second World War airport in Assam takes commercial wings

An airport built for warplanes in 1939 took commercial wings, heralding the best of times for western Assam’s Dhubri district during the worst of times.

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Rupsi airport near Gauripur, about 15 km from district headquarters Dhubri, was one of South Asia’s largest airports with a 1.8 km runway used by Allied aircraft for supplying arms, manpower and ammunition to forces in Burma and China during World War II.

Rupsi is Assam’s 7th airport and 15th in the northeast including Pakyong in Sikkim. Commercial flights were allowed later.

India’s Partition in 1947 began eroding the airport’s importance. It was abandoned after the last flight — a Vayudoot from Dhubri to Guwahati — took off in 1983.

Flybig, an Indore-based company, would be operating the Kolkata-Guwahati-Rupsi flight under the subsidised UDAAN scheme for regional connectivity. Rupsi is vital not only for western Assam. It used to and again will cater to the people of western Meghalaya, Cooch Behar and Alipurduar districts of West Bengal and south-western Bhutan, besides fuelling small-scale industries.