New Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia and the Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh Pema Khandu on Tuesday flagged off the first flight of Made in India HAL Dornier Do-228 in a bid to connect airports and Advanced Landing Grounds (ALGs) of Northeast India. The flight will be operational from Dibrugarh in Assam to Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh and finally to Lilabari in Assam.
Scindia described the development as "historic" adding that the step was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the North Eastern State a priority area. "The inauguration of the country-made Dibrugarh-Pasighat-Lilabari-Guwahati flight by Dornier under UDAN today is a historic step in this direction after Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri@narendramodi ji declared North-East as a priority area! Hearty congratulations to the citizens of the state!," tweeted Scindia.
Speaking at the event the Union Minister said while 74 airports were set up in the last 70 years, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership 66 airports were constructed in the last seven years. “In the last 70 years, 74 airports were developed but in the last seven years under the visionary leadership of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have created 66 new airports taking the total number of airports to 140 in the country. In Northeast, nine airports were operationalized but 15 airports have been established in the last seven years.”
Alliance Air, a public sector airline company, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), a Central Public Sector Unit under the Ministry of Defence to operate Indian-made Dornier aircraft, which is called Hindustan aircraft. With this, Alliance Air became the first commercial airline to fly Indian-made aircraft for civil operations.
As the Centre Government pushes for greater self-reliance, "this initiative is in line with the vision of PM Modi's AtmaNirbhar Bharat" said a readout from the press release. It further stated that the deployment of the Indian-made Do-228 will be done in a phased manner. While two Hindustan aircraft would be stationed at Dibrugarh, to connect Tezu, Pasighat and Ziro in the first phase, connectivity to Mechuka, Tuting and Vijoy Nagar has been planned in the second phase. In the coming 15 days, the airline will connect Tezu and after that, within 30 days, air connectivity to Ziro would commence, stated the release.
“There will be connectivity throughout the region of Arunachal Pradesh, the furthermost corner of India to the heart of India, to south India, to North India and that is the Prime Minister’s vision. Through UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik), through northeast connectivity and all of this, the result of the Prime Minister’s commitment to the people of the northeast is bearing fruit and the vision is coming true" said Scindia. Regular flight operations on the Dibrugarh-Pasighat-Lilabari-Dibrugarh route are scheduled to start from April 18, 2022. The services will be further expanded to Tezu, Mechuka, Ziro and Tuting in Arunachal Pradesh with the Dibrugarh airport as the hub station. The services will be operated by Alliance Air under the Centre's regional connectivity scheme UDAN.
