Tag Archives: Chennai

Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat train services flagged off

Tamil Nadu’s first intra-State Vande Bharat train service between Chennai and Coimbatore was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Dr MGR Ramachandran Chennai Central Railway Station in the presence of Chief Minister MK Stalin, Governor RN Ravi and Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

This is the State’s second Vande Bharat express after the Chennai-Bengaluru service, launched recently. Across India, it was 14th Vande Bharat train service to be flagged off.

The chair-car fare between Chennai and Coimbatore will be INR 1,365 and for the Executive class INR 2,490.

The maiden run of Chennai-Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express clocked 130 kmph. Barely 30 minutes into its journey, the train achieved a speed of 130 kmph.

At this speed, the journey time between the State’s capital and the Manchester of South India will reduce by an hour and 20 minutes to 5 hours and 50 minutes.

Before flagging off the train, he interacted briefly inside the train with some 50 IIT-Madras students working on 5G and HyperLoop. (Source BusinessLine)

Govt earmarks 25 AAI airports for leasing between 2022-2025

As per National Monetization Pipeline (NMP), 25 airports of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) have been earmarked for leasing over the years 2022 to 2025, said the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation VK Singh, in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, said AAI airports are leased out in the public interest for their better management utilising private sector efficiency and investment.

States and passengers are the ultimate beneficiaries of enhanced airport infrastructure and facilities created by a private partner, who operates, manages and develops the leased airport under Public Private Partnership (PPP), he said.

The Minister further said airports have emerged as a nucleus of economic activities and have a multiplier effect on the economy of the State. The revenue received by AAI from the leased airports is also utilized in the development of airport infrastructure across the country.

According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the airports namely Bhubaneshwar, Varanasi, Amritsar, Trichy, Indore, Raipur, Calicut, Coimbatore, Nagpur, Patna, Madurai, Surat, Ranchi, Jodhpur, Chennai, Vijayawada, Vadodara, Bhopal, Tirupati, Hubli, Imphal, Agartala, Udaipur, Dehradun and Rajahmundry have been earmarked for leasing over the years 2022 to 2025.

Further, AAI has leased out eight of its airports under PPP for operation, management and development on long-term lease basis.

The airports along with the concessionaires include Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai, Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, Mangaluru International Airport, Jaipur International Airport, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. (ANI)

Visitors from Chennai to South Africa projected to grow at 30% CAGR by 2025

Deepening engagement with key stakeholders in Chennai, South African Tourism – backed by a high-profile diplomatic delegation – visited the city from September 21 to 23. The tourism board was accompanied by the High Commissioner of South Africa to India H.E. Joel Sibusiso Ndebele, Consul-General Andrea Kühn and the Consul-General of South Africa in India, Dean Hoff.

In 2021, Chennai was the third largest Indian feeder market to South Africa with 7.5% Indian arrivals from the city. The city is also projected to be South African Tourism’s highest growth market by 2025, with 30% CAGR. Given the strategic importance of this market, the tourism board engaged with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation to discuss skill development and other potential collaborations, while also connecting with other key travel players and corporates. During their visit, the delegation also hosted an event for the travel trade in Chennai to promote South Africa as a tourist destination of choice.

Speaking about the visit to Chennai, Neliswa Nkani, Hub Head – Middle East, India and South East Asia, South African Tourism said, “We are delighted and humbled at the response that destination South Africa has been receiving from the travel fraternity in Chennai. Being one of our top 3 source markets from India and the highest projected growth market, we see immense potential in the city and have been exploring collaboration opportunities to further our footprint here. We are deeply invested in making the destination more accessible to Chennaites, and with support from the High Commissioner and Consul-General, will continue to push for a direct flight from India.”

The tourism board cited that efforts were ongoing to create greater value for money and adventure-filled itineraries for Chennaites, who are particularly keen on solo travel to the Rainbow Nation. It is interesting to note that in 2021, 58.2% travellers from Chennai travelled to South Africa alone, while 34.7% travelled with colleagues and associates.

“With the Indian outbound travel economy projected to surpass USD 42 billion by 2024, we believe that the time is right to invest in this crucial market. Basis our conversations over the last few days, we expect to see an increase in MICE groups travelling to South Africa in the next 6 months. We anticipate bookings from financial, information technology, beauty, insurance, coal and mining, pharmaceutical, entertainment and sporting companies based in Chennai.” she continued.

Earlier this year, the tourism board outlined a strategic roadmap to garner a 64% YoY increase in Indian visitors in 2022. With over 17,627 Indian visitors travelling to South Africa between January and May 2022 itself, the tourism board is well on track to achieve or even surpass their yearly targets of 28,890 for this year.

 

BLS International to process Thailand visa applications in Chennai

BLS International has been authorised by the Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chennai for accepting and processing visa applications on its behalf.

Commenting on this, Shikhar Aggarwal, Joint Managing Director, BLS International said, “We are glad to grow our network of services with the Thai Embassy. We recently signed a contract with the Thai consulate in Mumbai, Kolkata and Kenya. We will continue to explore more opportunities and deliver our best-in-class visa application services to provide an accessible and faster customer experience. With new contracts and services, we ensure to give a delighted experience to our applicants in the journey of visa processing.’’

“The Royal Thai Consulate–General, Chennai, congratulates the timely opening of a new Thai Visa Processing Centre in Chennai by BLS International Services Limited as Thailand welcomes visitors from India and all over the globe. The opening of this Visa Processing Centre will help to facilitate those wishing to visit and enter Thailand. Our cooperation with BLS in Chennai is not new since BLS has been working with other Thai missions in New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. In this regard, we look forward to working closely with BLS in Chennai.” – A statement released by the Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chennai reads.

BLS will be providing Thai visa application services along with several value-added services like form filling assistance, SMS tracking, photocopy & printing, travel insurance and courier services for the convenience of the applicants. BLS centres are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and can service other countries as well.

Globally, the company works with over 46 client governments including Diplomatic Missions, Embassies & Consulates and leverages technology and processes that ensure customer safety and data security. The company now has an extensive network of more than 27,000 centres with a robust strength of over 20,000 employees and associates that provides biometrics, consular and citizen services. BLS has processed over 62 million applications to date globally.

 

Akasa Air to start Ahmedabad-Benglauru and Chennai-Mumbai flights

Akasa Air has announced two new routes as it looks for pan-India connectivity. The airline will launch its commercial operations from August 7. Akasa Air on Tuesday said that it will soon fly flights on Ahmedabad-Bengaluru and Chennai-Mumbai routes.

The Ahmedabad-Bengaluru flight will start from August 23 while the Chennai-Mumbai route will be activated from next month.

“Introducing new routes: Bengaluru – Ahmedabad from August 23 and Mumbai – Chennai from September 15,” Akasa Air tweeted on Tuesday.

The company has also announced to increase the frequency of the flights on the already existing Bengaluru-Mumbai route from August 30. “More daily flights on existing routes: Bengaluru – Mumbai from August 30,” the airline tweeted.

The company added that it is progressively expanding its network and connecting more cities.

The new carrier is scheduled to launch commercial flight operations on August 7 by flying its first flight on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. The airline will start services on the Bengaluru-

Kochi and Bengaluru-Mumbai routes from August 13 and August 19, respectively.

Flying with the airline code QP, Akasa Air will begin commercial operations with two aircraft from August 7, it said.

It will add an additional two aircraft each month and by the end of 2023, it will have inducted 18 aircraft, the airline mentioned.

“It plans to add another 12 to 14 planes every 12 months, which will make up its order of 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, delivered over five years,” it noted.

The carrier had on July 7 received its air operator certificate from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

Earlier in July unveiling its uniform for crew members, Akasa Air is its press release said, “Keeping in mind ergonomics, aesthetics and comfort, Akasa Air is the first Indian airline to have introduced custom trousers, jackets, and comfortable sneakers for its airline in-flight crew.”

Ethiopian Airlines started flights to Chennai from Addis Ababa

Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s leading airline, has started thrice weekly operations to/from Chennai, on 02 July 2022. With the launch, Chennai has joined the vast Ethiopian network as a fourth destination in India after New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru .Ethiopian started its service to India with a debut flight to New Delhi in 1966, just 20 years after the airline was founded. Ethiopian pioneered the air transport linkage between Africa and India. Recently, Ethiopian marked its 50th year anniversary of uninterrupted service to Mumbai, the commercial capital of India.

Commenting on the launch, Ethiopian Airlines Chief Commercial Officer, Lemma Yadecha Gudeta said, ”It is great honour to be here in Chennai today as we launched our 4th destination in India and the first new destination after the pandemic. After a very tough journey in the last three years ,we are now able to overcome the challenges and embark on a new growthpath. Currently we are operating 38 weekly Cargo and Passenger flights to/from our destinations in India and the commencement of flight to Chennai is a testimony of our commitment to serve Indians in all corners of the country.”