TBM Staff - Mumbai The Assam government signed an agreement with regional carrier FlyBig Airline to transport stranded passengers in the Barak Valley, which has been disconnected with the rest of the state due to flood and landslides, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
After chairing a meeting of the state cabinet, Sarma said at a press conference that an MoU has been signed with the airline to run special flights between Silchar and Guwahati at a fixed rate of INR 3,000 per ticket.
“They will operate these flights for the next 10 days and we hope that everyday 70-100 stranded passengers will avail the service. The additional cost will be taken care of by the government as subsidy to the airline,” he said.
In the wake of the inclement weather across several parts of the northeast, the cost of flight tickets soared to around Rs 30,000 a seat between Silchar and Guwahati instead of the usual Rs 3,000 fare.
On reinstating communication with southern Assam, he said the rail link will take around 45 days to be restored, while road connectivity will be up and running in the next two-three days.
