NEW DELHI, March 9 � In an interesting revelation, the Centre today disclosed that the Policy on Regional and Remote Area Air Connectivity that envisages promotion of air connectivity in the Northeastern States, has been put on hold on the plea of the airline operators.
To achieve better regulation of air transport services in un-served and under-served areas and in view of the need for air transport services in different regions and remote areas of the country, the Union Government, in supersession of the existing Route Dispersal Guidelines (RDGs), had issued guidelines on Policy on Regional and Remote Area Air Connectivity, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Dr Mahesh Sharma said in reply to a question by Gaurav Gogoi and Vincent H Pala, among others.
However, the policy has been put on hold in view of representations received from stakeholders, he admitted, confirming that the old policy is now in force. However, in order to improve air connectivity in remote and regional areas, a draft revised policy had been put up recently for consultations with stakeholders, the Minister said.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had installed all equipment to facilitate night landing at Kumbhirgram Airport in Silchar and handed it over to the Indian Air Force in 2009 with a request to permit night operation of civil flights, Dr Sharma said in a Lok Sabha reply to a question by Sushmita Dev.