|
Grounded
expectationsThe
Guwahati-Bangkok flight has proved to be just an airy dream! Air India has
decamped bag and baggage from Guwahati and the Lokapriya �Gopinath Bardoloi
airport has been divested of its �international� tag. Thus the suspicion that a
conspiracy had been on to irrevocably terminate the only flight to a foreign
country from the North East was no parochial paranoia. Many organisations had
protested against the possible move and the North East MP�s forum had even
presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister. The Union Civil Aviation Ministry
had then solemnly assured that the flight was temporarily suspended and would be
resumed after the SARS scare was over. That, confronted with the outcry raised
in the North East, the Ministry had been lying to its teeth even while playing
the stalling game has become clear now. Since it has stretched the limits of
credibility of the people of this region, they will also take the pretext for
grounding, lack of profitability, as another piece of fabrication. Letters
appearing in various newspapers seem to suggest that Air India had deliberately
discouraged bookings on the flight in order to reinforce its claim of
unprofitability. That the Centre has not heeded the frantic appeals of the
North-East tellingly indicates that, despite its profession of partiality
towards the region, Dilli yet remains dur ast.
Given half a chance, the potentiality of the flight to boost the economy of a land-locked area had been enormous. The seven sisters had been undertaking ambitious schemes to lure foreign tourists� one inlet has been snipped off before these could take off. The psychological impact of the termination of this international flight must not be underestimated. Now, as if losing its international status were not enough, the LGB airport has received yet another snub. Media reports indicate that the plan to convert this airport into the hub of air-operations in the North East is being quietly shelved. It may be recalled that Air Alliance had in January launched its Kolkata-Guwahati-Dimapur-Agartala-Kolkata route with great fanfare. Serviced by 50 seater ATR-42 aircraft, Air Alliance was to extend its range to link major places of the region with Guwahati and Kolkata. Logic demanded that the most convenient base for the Air Alliance fleet was Guwahati and not Kolkata, and it was expected that the latter airport would be transformed into a full-fledged centre for regional air-service. Now it transpires this too is an airy dream! An operational base has already been set up at Kolkata equipped with the technical facilities and spare parts for ATR maintenance. All that the Guwahati airport would have is a night base for one ATR aircraft from December. At present all the four ATRs are operating from Kolkata, thereby resulting in reduced connectivity of the various places of the North East with Guwahati. The Air Alliance authorities have remained mute on the decision not to shift the operational base to Guwahati, thereby contradicting the commitment given in the Prime Minister�s special economic package for upliftment of the region. Here again vested interests appear to have come into play, with staff who were manning the initial engineering base at Kolkata being unwilling to move to the North East. While providing connectivity to remote regions is all very well, equally important is infrastructural development as far as air services in the North East is concerned, and an operational base at Guwahati would have led to such development. The surreptitious decision to keep the base at Kolkata is another instance of the shenanigans of forces inimical to the North East and the people here must raise their voices in protest. Since the North Eastern Council is providing budgetary support to Air Alliance, and so far has forked out Rs 175 crore for the project, it is incumbent on that august body to examine the nitty gritty of the matter and rectify the deprival as early as possible. |
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