Council ready to pay VGF to Alliance Air till Dec
SHILLONG: The North Eastern Council (NEC) on Friday said it had asked Alliance Air to continue its services on the Shillong- Kolkata Sector with the promise that the Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for this arrangement would be paid till December 2014.
M. Kalita, Executive Engineer (Transport & Communications), NEC, informed that as Alliance Air has not been able to provided air connectivity to Lilabari and Tezpur airports in Assam which are not connected by any airline, the Council has already entered into an agreement with Seven Sisters Airline to provide air connectivity to unconnected sectors in the North Eastern Region with its hub at Umroi Airport, Shillong.
The statement came from NEC after Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India, stopped its services from Umroi Airport on June 1 following expiry of the agreement on May 31.
Kalita further said that the NEC has already sanctioned construction of the perimeter fencing wall for Umroi Airport and has plans to sanction funds for construction of hangars and extension of the airstrip by an additional 1500 feet.
“These works along with installation of Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Umroi can be started once the land acquisition process is completed and the land is handed over to the Airports Authority of India by the Meghalaya Government,” he added.