NEW DELHI, May 18 � In an attempt to ease passenger woes following suspension of operation by Pawan Hans, Alliance Air has announced increase in frequency of services to Tezpur and Lilabari.
Official sources said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has decided to increase the services of Alliance Air to Lilabari and Tezpur due to halt in operations of Pawan Hans Helicopter services to Arunachal Pradesh.
Alliance Air is currently operates three services per week on Kolkata-Silchar- Tezpur - Silchar �Kolkata route. The services to Tezpur and Lilabari is now proposed to be increased to six flights per week.
The frequency of Kolkata-Guwahati-Lilabari-Guwahati-Kolkata is proposed to be increased to five flights per week. While additional flights covering Guwahati- Tezpur-Jorhat-Guwahati (two frequencies per week) and Guwahati-Lilabari-Tezpur-Guwahati (one frequency per week) are proposed to be introduced to ease the passenger load.
As reported, last week Minister DoNER, Bijoy Krsihna Handique convened a meeting of top officials of Civil Aviation Ministry, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Airport Authority of India to resolve the crisis following suspension of helicopter services of Pawan Hans in the North-East.
�We have strengthened Lilabari and Tezpur Airport and if services are introduced to these stations then the demands of Eastern Arunachal Pradesh, Tawang and Bomdila could be taken care of. At least there would be some connectivity,� he said.
The Minister asked Alliance Air to fly more flights to Lilabari daily, besides the regular flights.
Handique had written to Civil Aviation Minister, Vyalar Ravi to direct commercial airlines to operate flights to Lilabari and Tezpur.
The DGCA, meanwhile, is to conduct detailed inspection of all critical airports and helipads, besides security audit of all helicopters and aircrafts within four weeks in the North-east.