Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and MoS Civil Aviation & MoRTH, General (Retd) Dr VK Singh flagged off the first direct flight of Indigo airlines on Guwahati (Assam) to Pune (Maharashtra) route
TFM Desk
Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia has revealed that the central government is putting in place a massive expansion & upgradation plan by increasing the terminal passenger capacity from 50 lakh to 1 crore 20 lakh per year, considering the opportunities available in Assam & Guwahati. “The expansion cost of Rs 1,232 crore will be borne by the Central Government,” he added.
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Scindia was speaking on launch of the first direct flight of Indigo airlines on Guwahati (Assam) to Pune (Maharashtra) route. The first flight was flagged off by the Union Minister along with MoS Civil Aviation & MoRTH, General (Retd) Dr VK Singh on Wednesday, an official source on Thursday.
Scindia said that “The significance of Guwahati is not limited to North-East India, or entire India, or the entire world, the city of Guwahati finds its mentions across the ancient scriptures as well. At present times as well, Guwahati is called as the city of temples owing to the presence of temples such as Kamakhya Temple, Navagraha Temple, Umananda Temple & many more.”
Moreover, the minister said, the city is one of the largest tea markets in the country. I am delighted to mention that 55% of our tea exports are generated from Guwahati alone. In addition to these, Guwahati is also home to oil refineries and education institutions such as IIT, TISS etc, he added.
Minister for Transport, Industries & Commerce, Skill Development, Welfare of Minorities, Government of Assam, Chandra Mohan Patowary, Lok Sabha member Queen Oja,, Rajya Sabha Member Bhubaneswar Kalita graced the event virtually from Guwahati while Lok Sabha member Sh Girish Balchandra Bapat joined the event from Pune.
The commencement of the flight operations on this route will assist the people of Guwahati and its adjoining areas as well as passengers from Pune with seamless movement between the two cities. Due to non-availability of any direct mode of transport, people had to suffer long journeys of more than 45 hours by road or train.
Now, people can travel easily between the two cities by opting for a flight of 3 hours 15 minutes. With this new flight between Guwahati and Pune, common people will get multiple options for air connectivity which will boost trade, commerce and tourism of the region and will increase the economic activities between these regions, the official source said.