BAREILLY Come April, Bareilly would join the club of select cities with direct air link with Lucknow under the regional connectivity scheme (RCS) to link small towns, according to officials.
“A formal pact between the private company, which would operate the service and HAL for the purchase of aircraft is expected to be inked on Friday, in the presence of chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union defence minister Rajnath Singh,” said an administration official.
He said Turbo Aviation Limited, which bagged the contract, was supposed to start the air service last year but the project got delayed as it could not purchase the aircraft. The total flying duration between Lucknow and Bareilly is expected to be around an hour and a half while it takes almost four hours by superfast trains and by road.
“We have been told by the representatives of the company that it is now buying two 19-seater planes from Kanpur-based Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL),” said the official. Initially, only one flight would be operated and the fares would be announced after the contract is signed with the HAL.
“We have not received any official communication so far, but given that the air service was supposed to commence last year, an announcement could be made at the Defence Expo,” said Bareilly airport project director, Rajiv Kulshrestha.
{{/usCountry}}“We have not received any official communication so far, but given that the air service was supposed to commence last year, an announcement could be made at the Defence Expo,” said Bareilly airport project director, Rajiv Kulshrestha.
{{/usCountry}}He said the first phase of the airport was ready and operations could commence soon. “We expect to operate one flight daily on Lucknow-Bareilly-New Delhi route,” he said, adding that work on the airport known as Nath Nagari civil aviation terminal was in the second phase.