By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Following the decision of Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, to withdraw its flights from seven Northeast airports, including Tezpur, Lilabari and Umroi, the North Eastern Council (NEC) is contemplating to resume air service in the region from April 1.
The Council has already floated expression of interest for providing of air-connectivity in the three airports of the region — Umroi, Lilabari and Tezpur.
“We have floated fresh EoIs for all airlines. The bidding process is expected to have an operator with improved services and cheaper rates to fly in the Northeast airspace,” NEC secretary UK Sangma told reporters here on Friday.
According to Sangma, the last date for submission of tender papers is January 24 and added that they might extend the date if such request comes from any operator.
He informed that they held a pre-bidding exercise on Thursday where five private operators turned up to seek clarification on the terms and conditions laid down in the EoIs.
The five private operators who attended the pre-bidding exercise include two scheduled operators and three non-scheduled ones. They are Pawan Hans, Indo Power Projects, Quickjet Cargo, Seven Sisters Airlines and Northeast Shuttles.
“It was really encouraging to see the response from the private operators in this pre-bidding exercise,” NEC secretary said, adding that few of them have requested for extension of the last date for submission of the documents. “The NEC needs approval of the DoNER minister to extend the period of the tender. We would take up this issue with the Union Minister in the coming days,” Sangma said. Referring to the decision to scrap the MoA signed with Air India subsidiary Alliance Air, the NEC secretary said this was a unanimous decision taken by the Chief Ministers and Governors of the various Northeastern states during the 61st NEC Plenary in June, 2012 not to extend the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) to AA.According to Sangma, majority of the Chief Ministers and Governors of the region are totally unhappy with the services provided by the AA.”We had in fact not extended the agreement with AA since December 31 2011. The AA has been operating on its own with the consent of the NEC,” Sangma said. NEC secretary said that by continuing the air services, AA was hoping that they might be able to bully at the top to get the agreement extended so they could enjoy the subsidies which is provided by the NEC.
“Since 2003, the NEC has released a total amount of Rs 350 crore to the AA. Despite enjoying such a huge subsidy, the people of the region are not getting any benefit since the rate of tickets of the AA is higher when compared to the other private airlines that are operating in the region,” he said. When ask as to why the NEC took so many years to realize that the air services provided by AA is pathetic, he said that the NEC had in 2007 in fact had called for a fresh tender for operating of air services in the region. “Despite calling for a fresh tender, they failed to get any positive response from the private airlines. Even few of the private airlines who responded to the tenders had sought financial assistance from the NEC for purchasing air craft,” Sangma said while adding that this condition laid down by the private airlines was not acceptable to the NEC. “Finally, we are left with no other option but to allow AA to continue,” he said.Meanwhile, NEC secretary said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation might expedite some policies to improve air-connectivity in remote regions like the NE as recommended by the Rohit Nandan Committee adding that setting up of the proposed ‘Regional Air Connectivity Fund’ could also help. He was in favour of allowing scheduled airlines to have code-sharing with non-scheduled operators for providing feeder