Lucknow-Allahabad air connectivity on anvil

ALLAHABAD: Locals and visitors alike will be able to avail flights to four more cities namely Lucknow, Patna, Nagpur and Indore from Allahabad’s Bamrauli airport from June 2018, said state’s civil aviation minister Nand Gopal Gupta ‘Nandi’.

He said Jet Airways will be starting flights for Lucknow and Patna from June 14 and for Nagpur and Indore from June 16. As of now, flights are available only between New Delhi and Allahabad. As per the minister, a proposal submitted in this regard by the Jet Airways has been given the go ahead by the state government. The initiative would better air connectivity of Allahabad and provide a major fillip to trade and tourism in the city.

Nandi said the initiative was part of a mega regional connectivity scheme to provide air connectivity of Allahabad with 13 cities in days to come.

“It is part of this very effort that Allahabad is being connected with not just the state capital but also the capital of neighbouring state of Bihar as well as key cities of Indore of Madhya Pradesh and Nagpur of Maharashtra from June itself. Jet Airways would be operating a 72-seater aircraft to provide air connectivity with Lucknow and Patna for the benefit of the people,” he added. Nandi shared that the Jet Airways aircraft would take off from Lucknow’s Amausi airport and arrive at Bamrauli airport before again taking off from here for Patna.

On return journey, the aircraft will follow the same route by taking off from Patna for Bamrauli and then flying from Bamrauli to Amausi, the minister said. Similarly, another 72-seater aircraft would take off from Nagpur and

arrive at Bamrauli airport and then go from here to Indore and on return trip follow the same route by taking off from Indore for Allahabad and then from Allahabad to Nagpur, he added.

Nandi said before the start of Kumbh, efforts were to connect Allahabad with more cities for which the expansion of Bamrauli civil enclave was under way . He said soon other airlines including Indigo, Zoom Air and Turbo Aviation that runs south-Indian regional carrier TruJet could also start their flights to and from Allahabad. “If all goes as per plan, flights from Allahabad to Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Mumbai, Gorakhpur, Dehradun, Kolkata, Raipur and Pune would also start soon,” he said.