Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, MoS, Civil Aviation, General Dr V K Singh (Retd.) along with Rajeev Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) virtually flagged off 6 routes expanding the aerial connectivity of North-East India.

The routes commencing operations from today are Kolkata – Guwahati, Guwahati – Aizawl, Aizawl – Shillong, Shillong – Aizawl, Aizawl – Guwahati, and Guwahati – Kolkata.

Scindia said, “Mizoram is the gateway to North-East India. The city has an immense amount of importance for its tourism & economic sector. We are committed to giving wings to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of making it possible that every state’s uniqueness must be experienced by all citizens of the country. I assure you, that MoS General Dr. V K Singh (Retd.) and I will personally visit Mizoram very soon.”

The minister further mentioned, “I am delighted to mention the fact that Alliance Air’s most ATR aircraft are deployed on the North-Eastern routes. Today, we are further establishing seamless connectivity across entire North-East India by connecting 4 cities with one flight.  This underlines the due importance given to the North-East by the Ministry of Civil Aviation under the leadership of our Prime Minister.

“Under the UDAN scheme,we have connected cities that had no mention on the aviation map of the country. We have already started 60 airports, and 387 routes, out of which 100 routes are awarded in North East alone, & 50 are already operational.  Moreover, in 2014, only 6 airports were operational in North East, now we have grown to 15 airports in a short span of 7 years.

“Therefore, this further highlights the due importance of the North-Eastern states for this government. In addition to this, under the KRISHI UDAN Yojna, we have identified 16 airports to enhance the export opportunities of the region establishing dual benefits of enhancement of cargo movements and exports.”

With these new flights, travellers from Guwahati, Aizawl and Shillong will get multiple options for onward connectivity to the rest of the country.