Chief Secretary Sudhiranjan Mohanty has said that the state government will coordinate with Air India to connect Bhopal with international flights. He told the representatives of domestic aviation companies to present work plan related to increasing the number of flights from Bhopal for the country’s prominent cities like Lucknow, Bhuvaneshwar, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Amritsar including Jabalpur and Gwalior.

Mohanty said that the state government will consider reduction in VAT on ATF if night parking, cargo facility is made available at the Bhopal Airport and the number of flights is increased.

The Chief Secretary was reviewing activities related to expansion of air services from Bhopal to other cities at the Mantralaya. He instructed the Collector Bhopal to mark the appropriate land for the purpose of constructing a separate cargo center for Bhopal Airport.

The Chief Secretary instructed to take necessary action in three months regarding the night parking of the aircrafts and 24 hours operation of the Bhopal Airport. Officers of the Airports Authority of India assured that the cargo service would be started in two months from the old airport of Bhopal. Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Anurag Jain, Principal Secretary, Commercial Tax Manu Shrivastava, Principal Secretary Aviation, Aniruddh Mukherji, Divisional Commissioner Bhopal Kalpana Shrivastava, Collector Bhopal Tarun Pithode besides representatives of Airport Authority of India, Indigo, GoAir, Spice Jet Aviation companies and office-bearers of Chamber of Commerce and CII took part in the meeting.