Centre no to airport at Vizag

The Union ministry of defence has denied permission for the proposed international airport at S.

Rayavaram near Visakhapatnam citing security threats.

The state government, however, is in no mood to relent and the Chief Minister,DrY.S.Rajasekhar Reddy, will shortly dash off a letter to the Centre conveying the state’s decision to go ahead with the project.

Official sources told this correspondent that as an alternative proposal, the state may even ask the defence authorities to leave the existing airport to civil operations and shift to S.Rayavaram.

The state and the Airports Authority of India zeroed in on Rayavaram because of locational advantage.

“The ministry had recently written to the government denying permission,” a senior official said. The ministry stated that the Navy would set up the Naval Alternative Operations Depot and a submarine plant near Visakhapatnam and the location is eight km away from the proposed site for the airport.

The ministry was avoiding the issue for the past one year and did not give any specific details whenever the state sought clarifications.

Sources said the ministry initially replied that the distance between the airport and the proposed naval depot should be“reasonable” but was never specific.

The state government officials dismiss the ministry’s argument of security threat as the existing airport, where the civil operations are also carried out, is in the range of below five kilometres from all the naval establishments.

Air ticket prices set for another take-off

Air travel is set to get costlier with stateowned unified carrier Air India and leading private airline Jet Airways raising fares by identical levels.

The two airlines have raised fares by finalising a new minimum basic fare for various sectors depending on the distance travelled.

For instance, for flights up to 750 km, the minimum basic fare will now be Rs 1,000. It will be Rs 2,250 for distances between 750 km and 1,000 km and Rs 3,000 for distances above 1,000 km. Air-India will hike fares from Friday while Jet Airways already hiked the fares on Thursday evening itself.

The move is to ensure that airlines do not sell tickets below cost to avoid escalating losses in view of high aviation turbine fuel prices.

There was no minimum basic fare for sectors earlier.

Air India officials said the hike in fares varied as per the sectors. “The fare hike of basic fares, which was earlier Rs 2,000 on the Delhi-Mumbai route, will now be Rs 3,000. But in some other sectors the hike is negligible,” said an Air India official. Kingfisher Airlines stated that a fare hike is imminent.

Budget carrier SpiceJet, which raised basic fares earlier this month, has now hiked its fuel surcharge amount by Rs 300 (for distances up to 750 km) and Rs 550 (for distances beyond 750 km).