Even as Bali airport remained suspended due to smog, the Ministry of External Affairs is working out alternatives to enable Vice-President Hamid Ansari to depart from the island and return to India by Thursday night as per schedule. Officials in Bali confirmed that the Ngurah Rai International Airport would stay closed at least till Friday morning.
Mr. Ansari is due in New Delhi on Friday to hold talks with visiting Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao, who is in India on a five-day trip till November 8.
As officials in Bali confirmed that the airport would stay closed at least till Friday morning, it is unlikely that the Vice-President, who was scheduled to return on Thursday night, will extend his trip to touch Brunei.
He was scheduled to reach Brunei on Wednesday afternoon, address a leading University there, and meet Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and crown-prince Haji Al-Muhtadee Billah. The Brunei leg of his five-day Southeast-Asia trip was not likely to happen at the time of reporting.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the airport in Bali had suspended operations after Mount Rinjani, an active volcano on Lombok island, had spewed ash clouds into the airspace.
So far, Mr. Ansari has signed key economic and cultural pacts after meetings with Indonesian political leaders, pitched Indian investment avenues to Indonesian businessmen, and unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi at Bali's Udayana University.
The MEA is working to figure out alternatives to enable the Vice-President to depart from Bali. He is due in Aurangabad on Friday to hold talks with visiting Chinese Vice-President Li Yuanchao, who is in India on a five-day trip till November 8.
Over 1,000 flights of 35 airlines have suffered cancellation over the past three days.
Thousands of passengers have been stranded at the Ngurah Rai International Airport. "There was no official communication from the airport till we got there. We are hanging around here just in case something positive happens. Staying longer in the tourist destination of Bali is always great, but those with limited budgets do get hit hard," said an Indian tourist at the airport.
Airport officials said this is among the longer sustained instances of flight suspension due to volcanic disruption. In July this year, Mount Raung in East Java forced grounding of flights sporadically over a week. Besides obstructing visual clarity in the air, volcanic ash can also clog the engines and cause problems in other parts of an aircraft.
