Hubballi, Dec 12: Union Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju said on Tuesday that a total of 88 airports in the country would be made functional in the next one-and-a-half-years, through two rounds of bidding under the UDAN regional connectivity scheme.
Speaking after inaugurating the upgraded Hubballi Airport here on Tuesday, he said only 71 airports had flight operations till the UDAN scheme was launched.
"During the second bidding under the UDAN scheme, we are looking at getting air connectivity from Hubballi to Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Kannur, Hyderabad, Kochi, Goa, Tirupati, Delhi and other places," he said.
Civil aviation would get a boost if the state governments keep their taxes on fuel and other materials within reasonable limits. Unfortunately, the trend is that the state governments hand over only loss-making airports to the Centre, he said.
"Amphibious aircraft (seaplane) service is also being launched in the country. This has great potential as the country has 7,500 km of coastline and a number of reservoirs," the minister said. India, at present, stands in the third position in terms of growth in the civil aviation sector, mainly due to the increasing number of domestic passengers.
Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ananth Kumar stressed the need to develop the region as an international cargo hub, through the upgraded airport. He suggested that the airport be named after Jagajyoti Basaveshwara.
Gajapathi Raju also inaugurated the new terminal and flagged off Air India's A319 aircraft service (tri-weekly) on the Bengaluru-Hubballi-Mumbai route. Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha, district incharge Minister Vinay Kulkarni, MP Pralhad Joshi, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar and others were present.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
Comments
True Mr. Ganesh. Mangalore airport people treating Muslims are aliens. I used to get down in Calicut. And I wish soon the Kannur airport should come. Then these people's headweight will decrease.
As a Mangalorean, I prefer Calicut airport than Mangalore. In Mangalore airport worst service and worst treatment.
Have to wait and see it will take how many decades...!
No need taht much airports. Atleast should improve services of existing airports
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