Two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a civil terminal at Indian Air Force’s Hindon airbase in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for the government’s low-cost flying scheme, flights are yet to take off.
The ‘civil enclave’ at the airbase was envisaged as an alternative to the congested Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, which was able to provide very few slots for flights under the regional connectivity scheme, also known as UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik). The building used to facilitate air travellers was inaugurated by the PM on March 8.
Officials of the Airport Authority of India said that the delay in operations is because they are still in discussions with IAF regarding allocation of slots for RCS flights.
AAI writes to airlines
On Friday, the AAI wrote to airlines to apply once again for slots for flights. An earlier attempt to secure arrival and departure slots didn't yield any result, officials said.
Hindon’s civil terminal can’t be operational round-the-clock because of IAF’s own operations.
The civil terminal was expected to connect Jamnagar, Shimla, Kalaburagi, Kannur, Nasik, Hubli, Faizabad, Pithoragarh with a flight each. These were to be operated by four airlines — Star Air, Heritage Aviation, IndiGo and TurboJet.
Published - May 04, 2019 02:08 am IST
