Manipur Govt. Seeks Aviation Ministry’s Intervention to Curb Soaring Airfares

The additional chief secretary Manipur Anurag Bajpai also met secretary ministry pf civil aviation in New Delhi recently to apprise him about the hardship faced by the people in Manipur due to soaring airfare.

Informing that joint secretary and director of the civil aviation ministry attended the meeting, sources in the state government said that Mr Bajpai raised the prime issue of exorbitant airfare being charged by various Airlines, including IndiGo, Air India Express and Alliance Air, operating in the Imphal sector, causing extreme hardship to the people. It was conveyed that almost 5 to 6 times high, airfare was being charged by them compared to the other seven states of the Northeast region (NER).

The additional chief secretary also apprised the civil aviation ministry that the guidelines of the Government of India for capping of airfare are not being followed by the airline authorities in the Imphal sector. It was also informed that the number of aircraft has also been reduced by all the operational airlines from October in the Imphal sector.

Mr Bajpai flagged that Alliance Air has stopped services in certain extremely essential sectors -- Imphal-Silchar-Imphal; Imphal-Aizawl-Imphal and Imphal-Dibrugarh-Imphal. Keeping in view the huge public demand, he urged the Secretary, MoCA, to advise Alliance Air to revive those sectors immediately. It was also requested to consider them for coverage under RCS-UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme-UdeDeshkaAamNaagrik (RCS-UDAN) as earlier.

The additional chief secretary also raised the point of an urgent need to start international service from Imphal to Bangkok (both Passenger and Cargo) at least once or twice a week to start with, as it is in high demand from Industry associations and the general public to promote exports.

He also suggested that, keeping in view the available slots, the Akasa Air and Druk Air may also be considered to start their services in the Imphal sector. In order to meet the huge inter-district demand for air services, the Manipur government requested the MoCA to advise helicopter companies to increase the number of chopper services.

At present, both companies -- Pawan Hans and GVHL -- are operating only one copter. Further, it was also conveyed that Pawan Hans charges more than GVHL for the same sortie from passengers, which is against the agreement with MoCA under RCS-UDAAN.

Mr Bajpai has also drawn the attention of the Secretary, MoCA, to the expeditious consideration of the long-pending request of the Manipur government for renaming Imphal International Airport as Bir Tikendrajit International Airport.