After a long gap, flight to connect Silchar with Imphal, Aizawl

Silchar, Aug 11 (IANS) After a gap of 10 years, the air connectivity between Silchar -- the second populous city of Assam, and Manipur capital Imphal is set to resume from October.

The flight on this route will also connect Mizoram capital Aizawl with Silchar via Imphal.

It has been nearly 40 years since one could reach Aizawl from Silchar by flight.

A senior official at Silchar airport said that under the Regional Connectivity Scheme UDAN (Ude Desh Ke Aam Naagrik), Alliance Air, which is a division under the Air India Asset Holdings Private Limited, will be operating flight services on this route on a daily basis.

Director of Airports Authority of India (AAI) in Silchar, P.K. Gorai told IANS: "Alliance air sought the time slot from us to operate their flight services w.e.f. October 30 on this route. We have allotted it and looking forward for their flight operation to resume."

Earlier, Air India was running its ATR flights thrice a week, and following that, Kingfisher Airlines also started its flight operation between Silchar and Imphal.

As per the airport sources, the Silchar-Imphal route had witnessed a good number of passengers and Kingfisher also operated its aircraft between Silchar and Imphal.

But, due to the withdrawal of the government subsidy scheme for Silchar airport, and after Kingfisher airlines stopped its operations, flight services between Silchar and Imphal were discontinued in late 2012.

Gorai said as the road conditions of Silchar-Imphal are not at the best and since there is no rail connectivity to Imphal as of now, the Alliance Air flight could see jam-packed passengers on this route.

The bus fare between Silchar and Imphal is quite high and under the UDAN scheme, the flight fare is expected to be around Rs 2,000 per person.

An Air India official said that the Alliance Air flight will take off every day from Kolkata and its first stop will be in Aizawl. Then, it will go to Imphal and land in Silchar. Later, the flight will follow the Silchar-Imphal-Aizawal route and the final stop for the day will be in Kolkata.