NEW DELHI, June 4 — The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport is likely to become hub of air operation of Alliance Air’s regional air service and the North-East is again going to be back on the international air map with Indian Airlines shortly resuming the Guwahati-Bangkok flight. Announcing this at a press conference here today Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that the assurance to the effect was given by Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel. The shifting of operational base of the regional air service from Kolkata to Guwahati was a long-pending demand as was the demand for resumption of the lone international flight out of the North-East.
The Alliance Air currently operates four ATR 50-seater aircrafts in the North-East linking the State capitals and smaller towns in the region. Operation of the air service from Kolkata does not make business sense, as the service has to cater to the needs of the North-East, the Chief Minister said. Sri Gogoi said that he was given to understand by the Civil Aviation Minister that because of reluctance of Air India to operate the flight as it had become economically unfeasible, Indian Airlines has been entrusted the responsibility to start operations. The flight is likely to start shortly, Sri Gogoi said.
Meanwhile, winding up his rather eventful tour of the capital, a visibly pleased Sri Gogoi disclosed that Department of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) has cleared projects worth Rs 241 crore for Assam. The sanctioned projects also include old schemes worth Rs 41 crore. The new projects include conversion of wooden bridges to RCC, wastes management projects, multi level car parking in Guwahati among others.
During his current tour, the Chief Minister called on a host of new Ministers including Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee Union Water Resources Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi among others. In between he also met AICC president, Sonia Gandhi. Later this evening, he called on Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Union Chemical and Fertilizer Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and chairman of the 12th Finance Commission, CR Rangarajan.
About the gas cracker project, the Chief Minister said that the Prime Minister has assured that GAIL would be asked to submit its report shortly. It is only after submission of the report by GAIL, which has asked to examine the viability of the project, a final decision would be taken by the Government of India. The gas cracker project is in a limbo over the additional subsidy requirement to the tune of over Rs 6000 crore.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister said that he has sought a special package for the ailing tea industry. He said one package should be for reviving the sick tea gardens and another package for tea workers. As the incentives to revive the industry would take years to materialise, the State needed package to tide over the present crisis. The report being prepared by the Expert Committee headed by Dr Jayanta Madhab to revitalise the tea industry would be forwarded to Government of India, he disclosed.
On the State’s flood problem, he said that he had a discussion with both the Prime Minister and Minister for Water Resources. The priority would be on checking erosion as the State has been loosing substantially.
Meanwhile, Sri Gogoi again reiterated the demand for making good the State’s losses by awarding it a compensation of Rs 1000 crore to meet the loss. The State Government has been clamouring that owing to erroneous calculation of the Eleventh Finance Commission the State lost over substantial amount. He raised the issue with all the main players including the Prime Minister, Union Finance Minister and chairman of the TFC. There is no justification for reducing the State’s award when the Finance Commission’s award to other States have gone up by twice, thrice and even more, he remarked.
In his meeting with the Finance Minister, Sri Gogoi reiterated the demand for a special Debt Relief Package on the lines given to Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. He also wanted conversion of of all outstanding central loans into soft block loan with a repayment period of 30 years including an initial moratorium of five years on payment of both principle and interest. He also requested the Centre to restore the practice of meeting the negative balance from Current Revenues of the Special Category States by additional Central assistance, which was discontinued from 1989-1999.