The first flights to and from Umroi to Lilabari will take off on Monday.
This new Alliance Air route is one of three flights connecting five cities under the central government’s UDAN scheme that was launched by Union Minister of Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, today.
Lilabari Airport serves North Lakhimpur in Upper Assam. There will be four of the subsidised flights a week connecting Lilabari and Umroi. The flight will utilise an ATR 72-600 aircraft
The other flights launched today were an Imphal-Aizawl-Imphal service (five times a week) and Lilabari-Ziro-Lilabari (twice a week).
The enhanced aerial connectivity in the mountainous cities of the five states of the North East will play a vital role in creating the ease of living for the residents of the region and boosting tourism and trade, a press release stated.
Scindia congratulated the people of the region and said that today is a very auspicious day that “we have taken such a significant step in the direction of providing air connectivity to every part of the country.”
In the last eight years, seven airports have been developed in the region. Fourteen percent of routes under UDAN have been awarded to the North East, with this rising to 18 percent under UDAN 4.2, and a Rs 500 crore corpus has been dedicated to the air connectivity of the region.
The minister also announced that, under International UDAN, Agartala will be connected to Chittagong in Bangladesh and Imphal to Mandalay in Myanmar.
Union Minister of State, Gen Vijay Kumar Singh (retd) said that it is a matter of great pleasure that this additional air connectivity is being provided for the North East and it will facilitate travel between the states and help people travelling for various purposes and contribute to the growth of the region.
