After getting the approval for the much-awaited Jewar international airport last week, now Uttar Pradesh Government is now mulling to get an approval from the Centre to connect the big cities of the State through air to boost its tourism sector. A high-level meeting of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry is slated on July 7 when the matter would come up for discussion and approval.
Around 10 big cities in UP would be connected with small aircraft under the project to boost tourism and other sectors in the State.
UP Civil Aviation Minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’ said here on Sunday that the meeting of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry this week would pave way for air connectivity of cities in the State.
In the first phase, the UP Government has proposed 10 cities — lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gorakhpur, Meerut, Agra, Jhansi, Bareilly, Chitrakoot and Kushinagar — for the air connectivity.
As per the project, a 20-seater plane would be used for connecting these cities with fare around Rs 2,500. In case the aircraft company suffers loss due to less occupancies then it would be covered up by the Centre providing 80 per cent and UP Government the rest 20 per cent.
Sources said that small aircraft are safer than the big one and it will boost the tourism as these planes can land in small airstrips. At present, there are 32 airstrips in the state.
The Minister, who hails from Allahabad, said that the Bamrauli airport in the Sangam city would be open for public next year. “There is some problem in land acquisition due to farmers unrest, but we will sort it out soon and by the end of 2018, it will be open and pilgrims coming to 2019 ‘Ardh Kumbh Mela’ would get the facilities,” Mr Gupta said.
Meanwhile, Principal Secretary Tourism Avnish Awasthi told The Pioneer that aviation will open a new window for tourism sector in UP. The Government is in touch with Pawan Hans and some private players to start short flights or joy rides. To start with such flights will start from Varanasi and Mathura. “Eaxct date to start such operations will be intimated later,” he said.