Gujarat elections leave ATC staff harried

Mumbai, Dec 14 (UNI) Although there was no apparent relation between polling and flying, yet Gujarat's assembly hustings left the personnel manning the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) a harried lot.

The reason -- politicians of every hue were making a bee-line for Gujarat to campaign for their candidates.

The political leaders, with hired choppers and chartered aircraft at their disposal left the regular flight schedule topsy turvy, a senior ATC official said.

''In the last five days alone, we have handled over 100 unplanned flights carrying VVIPs for the Gujarat elections.

Such movement has not only only impacted the regular flights but also our staff,'' he said while pointing out that such irregular movements had to be handled at a very short notice.

The Mumbai Airport handles around 700 flights every day, making its ATC the busiest one in the country.

UNI