Apart from inter-connecting various cities in the State by air services, for connecting neighbouring States’ major cities and tourist destinations with the State, the policy has been amended by the State cabinet.
As per the policy, private operators providing air connectivity to the state will be identified through open tender. A private operator will operate minimum 9 seater aircraft. He will be free to prescribe fare in every sector.
Subsidy will be payable per month to private air service provider on flights from one city to another within the state and from one city of the state to another city of other state. State government will reimburse VAT on aviation fuel till expiry of MoU signed with private operator on the condition that aviation fuel will be purchased from the state.
Validity of agreement with private operator will be 3 years from the date of starting operations. The agreement can be extended for 2 years with permission of Finance Department if services are satisfactory. The state government will be able to permit any other operator to operate air service in a sector with the condition that it is not more lucrative than agreement signed with selected operators as above.
Notably, the policy was framed in year 2010 for air connectivity between state’s major cities. After inviting open tender, permission was given to Messrs Venura Airconnect for next 3 years from September 2011 for air taxi operations. Since then till August 2014, it has made available its services in Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Rewa, Satna, Gwalior and Khajuraho with over 7000 flights transporting about 20 thousand passengers. Changes in Mukhyamantri Yuva Engineer-Contractor Yojana
The cabinet endorsed changes in Mukhyamantri Yuva Engineer-Contractor Yojana framed for turning young engineers into contractors in the state. As per it, trained engineers will be given unique identity in registration so that there is no difficulty in identifying them in future.
Training period has been reduced from 6 to 3 months including 2 months’ field training and one month’s training in official procedures and academics. Under the scheme, trained engineers will be registered under “C” category. Registration fee for “C” category has been decreased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 2000 and security deposit from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25,000.
Every trained contractor under the scheme will be given 50 per cent concession in earnest money deposit/bid for first 3 years. This concession will not be given if contractor leaves incomplete any 2 work orders.