Gujarat state government has once again revived plans to connect major centres in Saurashtra and Kutch with Ahmedabad and Surat through intra-state flights.
It seems to be a prime example of trial and error method. After failing in the first attempt, the Gujarat state government has once again revived plans to connect major centres in Saurashtra and Kutch with Ahmedabad and Surat through intra-state flights.
The Gujarat state government wants the service to take-off before the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in January 2013.
“The plan is connect 8 to 10 important cities in Saurashtra and Kutch with Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat. The Gujarat State Aviation Infrastructure Company Limited (GUJSAIL) has already invited bids for the intra-state flights,” said a senior government official.
Some of the places that are planned to be connected with air with Ahmedabad and Surat include Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Porbandar, Jamnagar, Ambaji, Bhuj, Mundra, Kandla and Diu. 20-seater turboprop planes would be used for the intra-state flights. The one-way journey would cost around Rs3,000 to Rs4,000. Vipul Mittra, principal secretary, civil aviation department, said, “Various surveys have shown that there is lot of traffic potential for connectivity between these cities. However, for the initial boost to the plan, the state government would provide viability gap funding to the service provider for first three years. This would be in the form of confirmed booking of a certain amount of tickets.”
However, this is not the first time the project for intra-state flights has been mooted. Major announcements for the services were made even last year. In fact, Capt Gopinath, the pioneer of low-cost flying in the country, was roped in for the project. But, there were technical problems, and the project never took-off.
But, this time around, the Gujarat state government is convinced that the project would take shape. The state government has sanctioned an initial budget of Rs5 crore for the intra-state flights project, and is targeting launch of the services before the next Vibrant Gujarat Summit, slated from January 11 to 13.
In another step to promote intra-state flights, the government has also decided to abolish VAT on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF).
“The VAT on ATF for the intra-state flights was reduced from 30% to 4% last year. Even this is going to be abolished now to boost the service,” said an official.
The senior official said that land has also been acquired at Ambaji and Ankleshwar for building airstrips for providing intra-state connectivity. The government would spend around Rs10 crore each on the two airstrips.
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