Tender Preparation For Mainland-Island Charter Aircraft In Advanced Stage, Plans Also to Connect Car Nic By Bigger Aircraft 

Port Blair, Dec. 9: A meeting was convened by Lt. Governor Lt Gen (Retd) A. K Singh to review various projects of Civil Aviation department including the most pressing issue of high air fare in the mainland-island sector. A comparative analysis of fares on similar tourist & metro destinations of equal air travel distance was given by the department, which depicted almost similar fare trend throughout the country however very high fares were noticed on few days around Christmas and the New Year.

In this regard, the Lt. Governor has directed the department to keep a watch on the air fares and take necessary steps to ease the prices as soon as possible on those days also. He also asked the Chief Secretary Shri Anand Prakash to take up the matter with the Civil Aviation ministry to request them to fix an upper cap on the airfare specially for travel between Kolkata/Chennai and Port Blair. Lt. Governor also directed MD ANIIDCO to explore possibility of keeping few seats pre-booked exclusively for emergency passengers on the above mentioned routes.

On the occasion the Commissioner-cum-Secretary informed that the tender preparation for mainland-island charter aircraft was in very advanced stage and it should be uploaded within one-two weeks. He also added that it has been planned to run one flight each to Chennai and Kolkata per week from Port Blair initially, which can be increased as per the demand.

The Commissioner-cum-Secretary further informed that the administration’s plan to connect Car Nicobar by bigger aircraft should be successful within a month’s time since necessary follow up has been done with the officials of Directorate General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, Indian Air Force, Bureau of Civil Aviation Security, Meteorological Department and Airline Allied Service Ltd. at Delhi and they are going to visit these Islands soon for this purpose.

 

It was also brought in the notice of Lt. Governor that in the matter of foundation stone laying of the new terminal building and start of night landing facility at Port Blair civil aviation department is constantly pursuing the matter with the Airport Authority of India at the apex level and a positive outcome is expected soon on these fronts also. Directions were also issued by the LG to keep the pace of all projects very fast since air connectivity is one of the most important factors of growth & employment in these islands.