International flights from Bajpe, still a dream

Mangalore, Apr 22: International flight service from Bajpe, near here, which was to commence on May seven, may not take off as the Karnataka Government has not provided adequate facilities to set up an immigration centre.

As per the original plan, an Air India Express' Thiruvanathapuram-Mangalore-Dubai flight service should have landed from Dubai at 2020 hrs on May seven, launching the international flight service from Bajpe airport.

However, the State Home Ministry had withheld its green signal for the immigration centre on various grounds, including lack of trained manpower.

Sources at the Bajpe airport told sources that the Home Department opined that the airport required high security with additional trained manpower as Mangalore was a sensitive area, besides additional space for the immigration centre. At a recent meeting in Bangalore, the Home Secretary concluded that with the existing infrastructural facilities, an immigation centre could not function.

The Home Department had also rejected the Airports Authority of India's suggestion that the immigration centre might be set up with the existing available facilities to start international services.

The sources said that with the proposed international flight services, an international standard runway had been laid at the airport and services such as customs, security check and foreign exchange were to be set up soon to provide maximum facilities with the limited resources.

Meanwhile, the police department had sent a proposal to the Government recently to sanction manpower of 70 police personnel and other facilities like computers, vehicles, fax machines and photocopiers to set up the immigration centre.

According to a senior police official here, the Government could send trained police personnel to handle immigration requirement on a temporary basis till the district police were trained.

However, with the Bangalore airport facing shortage of police personnel, it was unlikely that Mangalore airport could get the required police personnel, he added.

UNI