MOD gives nod to commercial flights from Bathinda

Chandigarh, Apr 25 (UNI) Punjab's main city in the Malwa belt, Bathinda today moved a step closer towards a place on the civil aviation map of the country with the Ministry of Defence (MOD) giving its clearances for operating four commercial flights daily from the Indian Air Force (IAF) station at Bhisiana.

This would be the second major civil aviation project to be cleared for Punjab and comes close on the heels of the clearance to the Mohali International Airport.

According to CMs media advisor, Harcharan Bains the necessary clearance was conveyed to the Punjab government, through a special communication from the Ministry of Defence early this week.

Initially four flights will operate daily between Bathinda and Delhi in either direction.

Keeping in view the requirement of the defence base, these flights would operate between 1015 hours and 1500 hours in order to avoid civil scheduled operations during low operational flying by fighter aircrafts.

A civil enclave would be constructed at the existing defence airfield to ensure prompt commencement of the civil operations.

Additional land for this will be acquired by the state government for the Airport Authority of India (AAI).

The state government is already setting up state-of-the-art new flying training institutes/academies at Batala in Gurdaspur district and Anandpur Sahib. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence has also accorded its approval for setting up of a flying institute at Faridkot.

UNI HS JMK1804