GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
Ministry of Civil Aviation 

RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO: 3281
ANSWERED ON THE APRIL 25, 2013 

QUESTION
Improvement in Air Connectivity to North East States 

3281. SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR

 Will the Minister of CIVIL AVIATION be pleased to State: 

(a)   whether Government is aware that while it takes only 3-4 hours by air from the principle metros in India to reach any of the South East Asian capitals, it takes several hours to reach North East Indian State capitals, such as Kohima, ltanagar, Aizwal, Gangtok etc.; and 

(b)   if so, the steps Government is taking to improve air connectivity and reduce the time taken to reach the North Eastern region and other similar outlying areas of India? 

ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CIVIL AVIATION
(SHRI K. C. VENUGOPAL)

 (a): Guwahati, Imphal, Aizwal and Agartala are the state capitals of North East Region having direct air connectivity from metros. Guwahati is connected with Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore whereas Imphal, Aizwal and Agartala are connected with Kolkata. No scheduled domestic airlines are operating from Kohima, Itanagar & Gangtok. Jet Airways is operating 07 flights/week on both Aizwal-Guwahati and Aizwal-Kolkata route through ATR-72 and Air India is operating 03 flights/week on Aizwal-Imphal route through Airbus A-319 and 08 flights on Aizwal-Kolkata route through Airbus A-319.

 (b): Operations in domestic sector have been deregulated and flights are being operated by airlines concerned on the basis of commercial viability subject to adherence of Route Dispersal Guidelines laid down by the Government with a view to achieve better regulation of air transport services taking into account the need for air transport services of different regions of the country. 

According to these guidelines, all scheduled operators are required to deploy in the North Eastern region, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep (Category-II routes) at least 10% of their deployed capacity on trunk routes (Category-I routes). Further, at least 10% of the capacity thus required to be deployed on Category-II routes, is required to be deployed for connectivity exclusively within these regions (Category -II A).