There is good news for people who travel by air in Chhattisgarh as three major cities of State including Raipur, Ambikapur and Bilaspur will be connected by air services. The 19 seater first flight will depart from Swami Vivekanand Airport at 9 am on Thursday. These three cities of State will be connected by air service under the Regional Air Connectivity Scheme. The Fly Big aviation company has announced to start flights for these three cities from December 19. These flights will be operated three days a week on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The starting fare will be Rs 999 on first come first serve basis.

 

The 19 seater flight will take off from Raipur at 9.00 hrs and land at Maa Mahamaya Airport, Ambikapur at 10.15 hrs. After a 25-minutes scheduled halt, it will take off from Ambikapur at 10.40 hrs and land at Bilasa Devi Kevat Airport at 11.35 hrs. After 25-minutes halt it will depart from here at 12.00 hrs and land at Ambikapur at 12.55 hrs. In the last phase the flight will take off from Ambikapur at 13.20 hrs and land at Raipur at 14.35 hrs. The Central Government has handed over the responsibility of this air service to Fly Big Aviation Company under Udaan Yojana. After the start of Raipur-Ambikapur-Bilaspur flight service, people travelling to UP, Jharkhand and Bihar will get relief. Along with upgradation of Bilaspur Airport, a building is being constructed to install DVOR (Doppler Very High Frequency Omni Range) equipment for night landing facility.

 

The length and height of the runway will also be increased along with the works of boundary wall. An additional apron will be constructed in the airport as the current apron has a parking facility for two aircraft and one more apron will help parking of four planes. Carpet works of the Bilaspur Airport runway is also underway. A fresh layer of asphalt will be laid on the runway with re-carpeting of 1500 meters runway. For upgrading the airport, the state government needs 287 acres out of 1172 acres land occupied by the Army. Besides increasing the length and width of the runway, the building for DVOR will also be constructed.