Exclusive airways for NE gets Govt nod

New Delhi: Decks have been cleared for exit of Alliance Air from the North-east, with the Centre all set to endorse the proposal for a new regional airways. The proposal for an exclusive airways to serve the North-east was given the go ahead at the recent sectoral meeting at Aizawl, disclosed Minister, Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Mani Shankar Aiyar.
Aiyar said Alliance Air, which is currently operating the regional air service would be given extension for a couple of months until new plansare firmed up.
"There is a plan to supplement the 226 flights per week by having a network of 592 internal flights with separate hubs at Guwahati and Agartala,” said the Minister.
DoNER has accepted the demands from the States for improvement of both inter and intra-region air services, setting up of Greenfield airports. Accordingly, new airports are coming up at Kohima, Itanagar, Gangtok, besides upgradation of airports at Pasighat and Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Baljek in West Garo Hills, Meghalaya and Kamalpur and Kailashahr in Tripura.
Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Indian Airlines ran into rough weather in the North-east because of its services, which left many miffed.
Last December, the Minister, DONER held a meeting with the Sidhu committee and representatives from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Alliance Air, following which Alliance Air was asked to submit their best offer.
Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) also jumped into the fray and made a presentation to the Minister, DONER and chairman, NEC.
The Ministry held a series of meetings with both Alliance Air and IL&FS, and on April 9 it finalised the proposal to be submitted to the NEC, sources said.
IL&FS has of late started training its focus for infrastructure development in the NER. The objective is to develop infrastructure facilities through public-private-partnership (PPP).
24/05/07 Kalyan Barooah/Assam Tribune

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Categories: General Aviation May 2007, New May 2007