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Travellers to North Bengal, Darjeeling and Sikkim may soon be offered evening flight options to Bagdogra airport. Located near Siliguri, Baddogra now offers flight services only during the day time.
At a meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Arun Mishra, Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), indicated that it would take steps to install night landing facility at the airport.
“We have found a way out (to begin night landing at Bagdogra),” Miushra told reporters on Wednesday at the Writers’ Building.
According to Vikram Sen, Principal Secretary, State Tourism Department, a high-level meeting among the Airports Authority of India officials, representatives from Ministry of Civil Aviation and Bengal Government and DGCA said that night landing facility can be started in the next couple of months.
“The DGCA informed that some administrative issues have to be dealt with and the airport authority would require additional Indian Air Force personnel to initiate the facility apart from technology installation,” Sen said.
DGCA would approach the Ministry of Defence in this regard shortly, he added.
Meanwhile, according to State Finance Minister Amit Mitra, major airlines such as Indigo and Jet Airways have given proposals to the Chief Minister on new routes to and from Kolkata. Mitra said they would also like to introduce special packages during Durga Puja in order to boost tourism.
While Jet Airways has proposed to increase the number of flights to Myanmar, Indigo wished to add more flights on Kolkata-Singapore and Kolkata-Bangkok routes, he added.
“We will introduce a flight to Ranchi from Kolkata by August. This apart, we are planning to begin direct services to Pune and Goa from Kolkata. More services will be added on the existing routes to Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Bangalore, Patna, Imphal, Dibrugarh, and Chennai,” Aditya Ghosh, CEO, Indigo, told reporters after a meeting with the State Government.
Indigo operates 38 flights from Kolkata daily and carry 22 lakh passengers a year.
> ayan.pramanik@thehindu.co.in
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