Bengal Aerotropolis will invite airlines to check out the facilities at the Andal airport city which it expects to make operational by the end of this year.

“We’ll present the airport to the airlines in a two-day meet in the first week of February. We’re hopeful that a number of airlines will be interested in operating flights from Andal,” Subrata Paul, the CEO and director of Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited, said today at the Bengal Leads summit at Milon Mela.

Travel agents from Durgapur and adjoining areas, and officials of public sector units such as Durgapur Steel Plant, Eastern Coalfields Limited, IISCO Steel Plant and Bharat Coking Coal Limited will also participate in the meeting to discuss the potentiality of passenger traffic from the airport, he said.

Construction work for the first phase of the Rs 10,000-crore project, which includes the airport, has been progressing as scheduled and the first flight is expected to take off in the last quarter of 2012, said Paul.

Singapore’s Changi Airports International holds 26 per cent stake in BAPL.

The terminal building will cover 6,500 square metres with an annual capacity of one million passengers.

Private airline operators said they would take a look at the facilities to be provided at the airport, parking charges, road network to Calcutta and other related infrastructure before deciding on operating flights.

“We have to look at infrastructure like number of hotel rooms available in case of cancellation of flights. The problem of lack of enough rooms is faced by airlines in small towns, especially in the Northeast,” said an official of a private airline.

BAPL officials said since the aerotropolis was centred around a regional airport, the terminal would not have facilities like inline baggage handling system or walkalators.

Mission Hospital of Durgapur will set up a 500-bed facility as part of the 1,000-bed health skycity project at the aerotropolis.