Maha Governor takes regular airline after CM says no for use of VVIP aircraft

Mumbai, Feb 11: In an unusual incident, Governor of Maharashtra, Bhagat Singh Koshyari was denied the use of the state government aircraft to fly to Dehradun. After there was no approval from the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray for the special VVIP flight, the Governor and his entourage decided to board an airline flight to the destination instead.

The Governor reached the Mumbai airport's general aviation terminal at 9 am today in Kalina to board the government Cessna Citation XLS aircraft. Reports said that the Governor's office had sent the Governor's programme to the state civil aviation department. As per protocol the same was forwarded to the Chief Minister's Office for approval.

In most cases, the approval comes at the last minute and hence the Governor and his entourage reached the general aviation terminal at around 9 am. However there was no response from the CMO despite repeated attempts. The Governor then left the lounge and headed for the aircraft.

This is the time time that such a situation had arisen. Koshyari was seated in the special aircraft for 15 minutes, by which time he was informed about the problem. The Governor then decided to fly to Dehradun on a scheduled airline flight.