Doubts over opening of Cooch Behar airport

Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee's eagerness to put Cooch Behar on the air map early next week may hit an air pocket with the Northeast Shuttles top brass caught off-guard by the chief minister's sudden announcement on Friday.
Mamata on Friday said the pact for flights between Kolkata and Cooch Behar would be signed on Tuesday, but the managing director of Northeast Shuttles, the airline that has agreed to fly to Cooch Behar, is currently hospitalized in Delhi. The next in charge of the non-scheduled chartered airline is in Southeast Asia at present.
With the CM set to travel to Darjeeling on Monday to sign a tripartite agreement, speculations are rife over a possible trip to Cooch Behar on Tuesday to inaugurate the airport and sign the chartered services pact. The speculation was further fuelled by transport secretary DP Gopalkar's call to the airline's managing director Captain Shoba K Mani, asking her to be present in Siliguri on Tuesday.
Mani, who has been advised complete bed-rest following a gall bladder operation in a Delhi hospital two days ago, is in a dilemma over how to comply with the protocol. "I had specifically informed the state transport department as well as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) that I would be unavailable till the end of next week. But now that something has to be done, I am trying to arrange for something," she said.
17/07/11 Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jul 2011