ETW Staff – Mumbai
For starting regional air services, the dept. of civil aviation, Govt. of Gujarat has issued a Letter of Intent (LOI) to Maritime Energy Heli Air Services (MEHAIR) across Gujarat. The LOA was issued to MEHAIR by the chief minister Anandiben Patel in the presence of Saurabh Patel, minister of civil aviation, Govt. of Gujarat and Sonal Mishra, IAS Secretary (civil aviation), Govt. of Gujarat.
The finalisation came after a tendering process which elicited a lot of interest from various aviation companies across India thus proving the growing interest of the business community in a progressive Gujarat. The tendering was a two round process with a technical round and a commercial round both of which were topped by MEHAIR.
The service will likely to be launched within 45 days from the LOI i.e on or before December 22, 2014 and will connect Ahmedabad, Surat, Bhavnagar, Bhuj, Mandvi, Jamnagar, Keshod, Porbandar and Rajkot cities. MEHAIR, which is known for seaplane services in the country for launching the service using 2 x Cessna 208B Grand Caravan aircraft which are configured to carry two pilots and nine passengers.
Siddharth Verma, director and co-founder, MEHAIR, said, “The launch of a regional air connectivity service in a progressive state like Gujarat will only provide a bigger fillip to not just trade and commence but tourism as well as religious tourism, since, it saves time and is a convenient mode of travel. Now people can finish business in a distant city within the state and still make it home in time to their home city the same day.”
As part of the contract, the Govt. of Gujarat will provide a subsidy to the service on the various flights operating across the State. Not only will the general public benefit from the service but the Govt’s options of travel also improve leading to a further increase in the efficiency levels of the administration.