NAGPUR NEWS:-Singapore, Malaysia flights likely from Nagpur

Read more:Mihan India Limited|Low Cost Flights|Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport|Air India Express

NAGPUR: Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport at Nagpur is 'international' only for the record, with only one flight operating to foreign shores from here in the last two years. However, if officials of Mihan India Limited (MIL), the airport operator company, are to be believed, Nagpur may soon be connected again with international destinations like Singapore, Bangkok and Malaysia.

Along with this, Air India Express may resume international flight between Dubai and Nagpur. This route will be serviced by a flight on the Mumbai-Nagpur-Ahmedabad-Dubai sector. "The airline discontinued its service in January last year, but has now started putting in place plans to resume services from Nagpur," sources at the airport informed.

MIL officials have recently approached and requested Air Asia, world's largest international low cost airline, to start flights for designations like Singapore, Bangkok and Malaysia. A senior MIL official confirmed the offer extended to Air Asia officials to get all international facilities at Nagpur airport.

The Nagpur airport had achieved its aviation high some two years ago, with flights to four international destinations Qatar Airways to Doha, Air India Express to Dubai, Air India on Hyderabad-Nagpur-Bangkok sector and Air Arabia for Sharjah.

However, international connectivity went down fast, with private airline Qatar Airways discontinuing its Doha operations first. Then, Air India suspended operations on Hyderabad-Nagpur-Bangkok sector and Air India Express too discontinued the Dubai operations some time back. Presently, Air Arabia to Sharjah is the only international flight operated from the city.

An MIL official said requesting anonymity, "It was a wrong decision or a decision forced by the then civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Qatar Airways and Air India, mandating full fare flights on flights to Doha and Bangkok."

Though officials of both airlines said the reason to discontinue the flights were 'operational', sources confirmed that poor load factor, especially for full fare flights from the city and nearby cities, had forced the airlines to discontinue the flight.

An aviation industry expert said, "Initially, the flights received tremendous response from passengers as it attracted nearly 80% passengers from neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. It was convenient for these passengers to take a low-cost domestic flight or even travel by bus/train to Nagpur and board the flight to Dubai and Sharjah."

Air India flight to Bangkok was also operating at full load factor as it got passenger from both Hyderabad and Nagpur.

speakoutnagpur@timesgroup.com

NAGPUR NEWS:-RTO office soon at east Nagpur

RTO office soon at east Nagpur

NAGPUR: The state government has finally approved the long-pending proposal of a deputy regional transport office (Dy RTO) office in east Nagpur. The government issued an order to this effect on August 24.

For the new office, 35 new posts have been sanctioned, including one each of deputy RTO and assistant RTO, four posts of motor vehicle inspectors and three of assistant motor vehicle inspectors.

The transport department was planning one more regional transport office in the city to cater to the growing vehicular population. The proposal was mooted for the convenience of people and to ease congestion at the transport department office.

Talking to TOI, RTO Vijay Lande said that the vacant bus depot land in Small Factory area on Old Bhandara Road has been proposed for new office. The state government has sanctioned Rs 54.98 lakh which will be allocated in winter session of state assembly at Nagpur for the said project. Geographically, the eastern side of the railway line that passes through city will be the jurisdiction of new transport office.

The city RTO deals with over 11 lakh vehicles as on date. Close to 400 vehicles a day are added to the city streets every day, said Lande. He further said that the RTO issues 150 permits to goods and passenger carrier vehicles, 300 permanent driving licences, 400 learners licences and 10 international driving licences per day.

Lande said, "With the new office, getting a learners licence, permanent licence and other RTO related work will become easier for east Nagpurians. A computerized test facility will also be set up."

For the computerization, the state government has earmarked Rs 2.46 crore for the project, implementation of which has already begun in 14 RTOs including Mumbai Central, Andheri, Thane, Kalyan, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg, Raigad and some others. It will be expanded to 10 more RTOs including Nagpur and east Nagpur.

East Nagpur MLA Krishna Khopde was pursuing the matter since last two years. He had raised the issue through a call attention motion in the state assembly on March 29, 2010. Initiating action on the long pending proposal, state government has sanctioned two such offices in state, one at east Nagpur and another in chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's constituency Karad in Satara district.

Talking to TOI, Khopde said, "The present RTO office was set up in the city when population was around 3 lakh. Now the city's population has crossed almost 25 lakh and vehicles has crossed the figure of 10 lakh. The present RTO office was falling short of catering to the needs of people. Hopefully, the new office will ease some of that pressure."