Sorry, Yechury, you ain’t dais-class

The CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, Sitaram Yechury, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture that deals with civil aviation, has been invited to the event but his name does not figure among those shortlisted to be on the dais. President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the facility in the presence of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and others.


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Sorry, Yechury, you ain’t dais-class

Paramount Airways to fly to Kolkata by June

Kolkata: After entering the southern and western markets of the country, private carrier Paramount Airways is now planning to launch services to the eastern sector by June. “We are looking at June to begin operations to and from Kolkata,” the Chennai-based company’s managing director M. Thiagarajan told the media here Wednesday. Thiagarajan said initially the airlines will operate two to three flights between Chennai and Kolkata. “Later, we will connect Kolkata with all the southern cities via Chennai.”

He said his company was ready to get into the northeast too. “For instance, we can launch a service to Dibrugarh.” Thiagarajan met West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Wednesday. “He requested me to operate services from Coochbehar, and promised all support.”
The airline now operates from three destinations in western India - Pune, Goa and Ahmedabad, and is the market leader in the south, with a 26 percent share.

He said by 2010, Paramount will operate flights in the northern and northeastern parts of the country. “Post-2011, we will look at flying on international routes,” Thiagarajan said. The company now has five aircraft, and has plans to buy three more by March-end. By 2009-end, the total number of aircraft will go up to 11.

“We will buy 10 numbers of either Boeing 787 or Airbus 350 once we start operating on the international route,” he said. Thiagarajan claimed that while the other airlines lost 8-10 percent of their passengers last year due to the slowdown, the number of Paramount’s passengers increased 5-6 percent.

MPs oppose British Airways' decision to pull out of Kolkata

New Delhi, Feb 13, 2009 : Concerned over British Airways closing down its Kolkata-London flights from March, several MPs from West Bengal today asked the government to check this trend and also make Kolkata a gateway for East-bound flights.
A delegation of Left MPs from the state today met External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and gave a memorandum demanding government's intervention in the matter, saying the decision to pullout of Kolkata by some international carriers was a "terrible setback" to the government's Look East Policy.
While it was natural that global meltdown had affected airports and the aviation sector, they said air traffic from Kolkata to London is also affected.
"Government is duty bound to stop this trend of winding up" of operations by global carriers from the country, they said, adding that the decision of British Airways to close down its Kolkata operations from March 28 had come as "a bolt from the blue".
The signatories to the memorandum included Basudeb Acharia, Mohd Salim, Tarit Baran Topdar, Anil Basu, Basudeb Barman, Susmita Bauri, Sudhansu Sil and Amitava Nandi.

Singapore's Changi Airport International buys 26% in Durgapur Aerotrop

KOLKATA, Jan 6, 2009: Changi had already signed a technical services agreement with Durgapur Aerotropolis last year. Singapore's Changi Airport International Pte has acquired a 26% stake in Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd (BAPL), who is developing India's first privately owned greenfield airport project.

The project is being developed in Durgapur, the industrial hub of West Bengal, which is about 160 km away from Kolkata. The other four stakeholders in the firm, who have the remaining 74% in the firm, are Pragati Social Infrastructure, Pragati 47, Lend Lease Ltd and City Star Ltd. The stake has been picked up through Changi Airport India Pte Ltd, reports Economic Times. Changi had already signed a technical services agreement with Durgapur Aerotropolis last year. The airport project will cost about Rs10,000 crore.

Durgapur Aerotropolis is coming up over 950 hectares of land in the Durgapur-Asansol region. While the airport is coming up over a 300 hectare region, the rest will be used for an industrial park, logistics hub, IT park with supporting infrastructure like housing, tourism and healthcare facilities. Changi is also trying to rope in Singapore-based Jurong International to set up an industrial park in the region.

Rs.16-bn upgrade of Kolkata airport launched

Kolkata, Dec 29 : Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Monday set the ball rolling for a Rs.16-billion modernisation of the international airport here, which will include a new terminal, modern taxiways and extension of a runway so that it can handle the giant Airbus A-380 aircraft.

The modernisation project, the foundation stone for which was laid by West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is targeted for completion by May 2011.The project launch was attended by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechuri.

The upgrade will raise the airport’s handling capacity to around 20 million passengers annually from 4.9 million now - 4.06 million of whom are domestic and the remaining 882,000 are international air travellers.

In his address at the inauguration function, Patel said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will not borrow a single rupee for modernisation of the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. ‘Investment will come from internal resources,’ the aviation minister said.

Patel said 35 airports would come up at non-metro cities, which will be completed by 2009-end, and added that a ‘world class’ airport will be opened at Srinagar next month. The minister said 20 more airports, including those at Kolkata and Chennai, will be upgraded on an investment of Rs.120 billion.

Turning to the proposed airport at Andal in West Bengal’s Burdwan district, Patel said: ‘When the airport comes up there, it will be the government’s first airport under the Greenfield Airport Policy’. Emphasising the need for the revamp at Kolkata airport, Bhattacharjee said it was essential for enhancing business relations with South East Asian countries.

Following the modernisation plans of Mumbai and Delhi airports, Kolkata airport was supposed to have been upgraded in a public-private-partnership (PPP) basis. But Patel had to shelve the plan in the face of stiff opposition from the Left parties. The modernisation work is now being done on a cash and contract basis. Delhi and Mumbai airports modernisation works are done by private consortiums led respectively by companies such as GMR and GVK.