AICC secretary demands to remove 'Adani' tag from arch of Mangaluru airport

Mangaluru, Apr 14: AICC secretary and former MLC Ivan DSouza on Wednesday demanded that the Adani brandname be removed from the welcome arch of the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA).

Addressing reporters, he said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) should take immediate steps to remove the 'Adani' tag from the airports name as it violated the agreement with the company which has only been given permission to operate and maintain the airport.

He said details obtained through an RTI query have revealed that the operating company cannot tag its name with the airport, which is fully under the Civil Aviation Ministry.

DSouza alleged that due to the neglect shown by the AAI, the MIA has witnessed a slump in its growth over the years. The facilities at the airport have not been improved and the number of flights have come down. He said the Congress would launch a 'Save Airport' movement if the authorities continued to show neglect towards the MIA.

The number of flights to Mumbai have been reduced and the only flight to Mysuru has also been cancelled. DSouza said though 16 years have passed since MIA received international airport status, no flights have so far been operated to tourism destinations like Sri Lanka, Singapore and Thailand. Presently, MIA has flights only to the Gulf countries, he said.