Union Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindiatoday flagged off the first direct flight of Indigo airlines on Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) – Raipur (Chhattisgarh) route. Sh. Shivraj Singh ChouhanChief Minister, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Bhupendra Singh, Minister of Home and Transport, Madhya Pradesh, Shri Vishwas Sarang, Minister of Medical Education, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Shri RamakantBhargavaSh. Sunil Kumar Soni, Members of Parliament also joined the event virtually.
On the flight launch, Shri Scindia said that “Yesterday, we celebrated the Madhya Pradesh Foundation Day, and today we are connecting capital of Madhya Pradesh with the capital of Chhattisgarh. Bhopal has always been known as the city of lakes and Raipur has its own natural beauty. It is only in the last 7 years that the development has attained movement in both the cities. Raipur airport holds the rank of 22nd busiest airport of the country and the dialogue for the expansion of Bhopal airport has also been initiated. It has been planned to develop a Cargo Terminal and set up MRO facilities at the Bhopal airport. The International airport license is also due for the airport. Earlier, Bhopal was only connected with 5 cities, now it’s connected with 9 cities of the country. Soon, we are also connecting Bhopal with Rewa to bolster aerial interconnectivity of the state. Till last 4 months, Madhya Pradesh was only connected with 27 cities, and now it’s connected with 50 cities. We have unlocked 50% achievement in terms of aerial connectivity for Madhya Pradesh.”
The minister further added, “Under the UDAN scheme we intend to make the fares accessible for the common man to promote air travel for the masses. Till 2025, we plan to operationalise more than 200 airports from current 136 airports.Earlier due to non-avaialibitlity of the direct flights, people had to travel for more than 12 hours to travel between the two cities. This new route will not only enhance regional connectivity but will also promote trade, commerce and tourism between these cities.”