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Air fares soar this Diwali; Europe travel cheaper than domestic routes

[email protected] (TNN)
November 13, 2012
Airplane-Take-Off

New Delhi, November 13: Dynamic pricing of air fares has led to tickets selling at crunch times, such as on eve of big festivals, for prices at which you could fly to Europe, and back. Check this out. On Diwali eve (Monday), a one-way ticket for that evening's flight from Delhi to Lucknow, barely an hour's journey, was going over Rs 30,000. A Delhi-Bangalore ticket for Tuesday was between Rs 9,500 and Rs 42,500.

That's not all. On Sunday, an economy class ticket from Mumbai to Kolkata was in the range of Rs 35,000 to Rs 43,000, and business class tickets above Rs 60,000. Similarly, flying from Delhi to Ahmedabad in economy class of full service airlines on Diwali would cost from Rs 6,500 to Rs 38,600.

With the grounding of Kingfisher accounting for a 19% reduction in domestic flights, there is suddenly a huge demand-supply gap and airlines are making the most of it. Leave aside festival eves, flying in general has become 100% costlier, and in crunch times, it could be literally touch the sky.

'Air fares within price bands'

Air fares have shot up this Diwali season. "If people haven't booked well in advance and are planning a last-minute purchase, they will have to pay through their nose. Almost all seats are sold out for Diwali travel and the remaining ones are going for the highest fares," said Anil Kalsi, a leading travel agent and senior advisor of Society of Foreign Travel Operators (India chapter).

"There has to be a rationality to market dynamics. This is plain exploitation of people's compulsion," said Rini Mukherjee, a university teacher who now explores the rail travel option before being compelled to fly. This trend isn't new. When airfares were sky-rocketing, industry regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked airlines to give a band of ticket prices within which it would have to sell. The airlines gave bands ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 50,000. The DGCA accepted it. A senior aviation official told TOI: "Airfares are very high but they are within the price bands that airlines submit for each route to the DGCA. So far we have not come across any case of the price band being breached."

While the price bands have now become a legal shield for airlines to charge as much as they want, the purpose for introducing them has obviously been defeated as there is hardly any correlation between actual cost and price.

"Diwali is being celebrated late this year, in mid-November. This is anyway the peak travel season and India has fewer domestic flights this time (due to Kingfisher's grounding). The net impact is fares defying gravity," said Rajji Rai, who till recently headed the Travel Agents' Association of India. Agents say fares can be expected to fall only after the December holidays. The reason: This winter is witnessing 10,935 weekly domestic flights, 19% less than the 13,541 flights last winter.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

Ayodhya,  Aug 4: Various religious ceremonies have been conducted for the past 108 days by saints in Ayodhya and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take part in `muhurat puja' at 12.44 pm on Wednesday as part of 'bhoomi pujan' for construction of a grand Ram temple.

PM Modi will arrive at 12:30 pm at the Ramjanmbhoomi and take part in various prayers including the main "bhoomi pujan".

Govind Giriji Maharaj, treasurer of Shri Ramjanmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said that the religious ceremonies will begin from 8:30 am in the morning and will continue till 12:30 pm.

"The Prime Minister will arrive at 12:30 pm and he will offer `puja' for 15 minutes and take 'sankalp'. First Lord Ganesh will be worshipped then he will offer prayers of eight shilas. Some prayers at shilas we have conducted already," Giri told said.

"The muhrat of pooja is at 12: 44 pm. He will say words 'prathisthapayami' and it is crucial to be done in that muhrat," he said.

Elaborating on the rituals to be performed tomorrow by the Prime Minister, the trust member said that most important is `Kurm Shila' .

"The most important is Kurm Shila - this is right beneath the place where Ram Lalla will be seated. It is this ceremony that we are conducting tomorrow. A cone of Bakul tree wood will be kept in ceremony. This isn't an ordinary cone, it is made of various metals including gold and silver. 

A lotus with nine gems too will be part of pujan which will be offered to this cone by the Prime Minister," he said.

"These are intrinsic to main bhumi pujan. The first religious ceremony was of Devi Kali. There are two devi kalis here, `choti' and `badi'. She is kuldevi, family's goddess of Sita. Today we held Ramarchan ceremony," said Giri.

The Vedic pundits who are involved in religious ceremonies have come from Delhi, Mathura and Kashi.

Asked about the absence of Nepal's religious head of Janaki Mandir, he said that there are many, including 20 religious heads, who would not able to come because they can't leave their seat in Chaturmas.

On the design of temple, Giri said, the old design will remain as it is except a rise in height.

"The structure has become popular and we will keep it. Keeping in mind the modernisation of architecture, we have raised height from 128 feet to 161 feet and instead of three peaks we will have five peaks," he said.

Kanchi Pithadhishvar Maharaj has sent silver coins as souvenirs for every sadhu participating in it, Giri said.

Invitations have been sent to 175 people, including 135 saints of 35 religious organisations to attend the foundation stone-laying ceremony of Ram temple.

The construction of Ram temple will begin in Ayodhya after the ceremony to lay the foundation stone.

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News Network
February 12,2020

New Delhi, Feb 12: Unidentified people opened fire at the convoy of the newly elected Aam Aadmi Party legislator Naresh Yadav in Southwest Delhi when he and his supporters were returning home after visiting a temple after his victory, killing a party volunteer, police and a senior AAP leader said.

The firing incident happened in Kishangarh village late Tuesday night.

Police said they have detained a person for questioning and the incident appears to be a case of personal enmity. Sources said seven rounds were fired at the MLA's convoy.

Another person injured in the incident has been admitted to a hospital.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh identified the dead party volunteer as Ashok Mann.

“Convoy of MLA Naresh Yadav attacked in Mehrauli, Ashok Mann killed. Naresh Yadav was returning home after visiting a temple,” Singh said in a tweet in Hindi.

“At least one volunteer has passed away due to bullet wounds. Another is injured,” AAP tweeted.

Ankit Lal, AAP's social media in-charge, added that miscreants in another car opened fire on the MLA's convoy near Fortis Hospital.

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News Network
April 25,2020

New Delhi, Apr 25: With 1,429 more COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's count of coronavirus cases has reached 24,506, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

Out of these, 18,668 patients are active cases and 5063 cases have been cured, discharged, or migrated.

The death toll stands at 775, with as many as 57 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the morning update by the ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit State with 6,817 cases of which 840 patients have recovered and 301 patients have died.

Gujarat now stands in the second spot with 2,815 cases, of which 265 have recovered and 127 people have died. Meanwhile, Delhi's count stands at 2,514 of which 857 patients have recovered, while 53 patients have lost their lives.

Tamil Nadu's COVID-19 figure stands at 1,755 with 866 patients recovered and 22 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 2,034 cases of which 230 have recovered and 27 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 1,852 positive cases so far of which 210 patients have recovered and 92 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 1,621 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 247 recovered and 25 people have succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 450 people have been detected positive for coronavirus.

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