Industries in the seven western districts of the State have sought air connectivity under Vande Bharath Mission to Coimbatore during September.
In a memorandum to Union Minister for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, president of Kongu Global Forum and its vice-president A. Sakthivel and Vanitha Mohan said the Coimbatore International Airport had flights landing here during the last three months under the Mission. However, Coimbatore was not included in the September schedule and also under the hub and spoke connectivity project.
Air India Express connected several cities with Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah this month in the Vande Bharath Mission . According to information available, Abu Dhabi was connected to 16 Indian cities, Dubai to 18 cities, and Sharjah with 10 cities.
Coimbatore International Airport had adequate infrastructure to handle these flights and it was included as one of the cities in the previous three months, they said. “It is disheartening to note that except Coimbatore and Visakhapatnam all the International airports in South India are included in this programme,” according to the memorandum.
In spite of having an international airport in Coimbatore, it was extremely difficult for passengers to reach western Tamil Nadu, especially during the spread of the pandemic.
The Forum appealed to the Minister to look into the issue and include Coimbatore under Vande Bharath Mission for this month.
