Shimoga-Bangalore: Air tickets for three weeks booked in advance, Flight service to start from Aug 31

Bengaluru: Flight services from the newly constructed airport at Shimoga by the state government will start from Thursday (August 31). Through this, the economic, industrial and educational growth of the districts of Malnad and Central Karnataka will reach a new height, Minister of Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development MB Patil said.

Speaking about the airport service on Tuesday, Minister M B Patil said, "As the first step in the aviation services, the IndiGo flight will depart from Bangalore's Kempegowda International Airport at 9.50 am on Thursday morning and reach Shimoga at 11.05 am. He will also travel on the first flight, accompanied by Shimoga district in-charge minister Madhu Bangarappa, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, Shimoga MP B Y Raghavendra will also be accompanied by people's representatives from Malnad region. There will be a water salute as soon as they land at the Shimoga airport," he said.

This is the first airport to be built in the hilly part of the state, for which an amount of Rs 450 crore has been allocated. Airport is located in Sogane, 15 km from Shimoga, on an area of 779 acres, in which landing facilities for Airbus type aircraft have also been provided. He explained that this will benefit the people of Shimoga, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davangere and Haveri districts.

In the coming days, direct flights from Shimoga to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Goa will be tried. Connecting flights to these places will be available in Bangalore immediately. Besides, he informed that a tender has already been called for expansion of air service under the UDAN scheme and it is in the final stage.

In the original plan, there was no night landing facility at this airport. Now revise it, that advantage is also given. It consists of a passenger terminal with an area of 4,340 square meters and a runway of 3,050 meters long. He said that the air tickets for the next three weeks have been booked in advance and there has been a good demand.