Union minister of state for civil aviation, Praful Patel, unveiled Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's 18-feet tall statue at the Sardar Patel international airport on Sunday. He also announced that Air India will commence a daily flight to New York via Mumbai from Ahmedabad, beginning Monday. The national carrier is also considering the option of taking Boeing-787 aircraft on lease for Ahmedabad to get a direct flight to London as soon as possible.
On the occasion of the inauguration of a new international terminal at the airport in July 2010, two Lok Sabha members from Gujarat - Harin Pathak and Dinsha Patel - had demanded that Sardar Patel's statue be installed at the airport. Praful Patel said that though the installing of the statue was delayed, he was very happy to finally unveil this unique statue, of a man whom the nation owes a lot. The statue has been created at a cost of Rs45 lakh.
Patel also regretted the delay in commencing a direct flight to London from Ahmedabad, something that he had promised while inaugurating the new terminal in July. He blamed the lack of supply from the aircraft manufacturer for the delay in commencing the service.
"We are considering the option of taking a Boeing 787 aircraft on lease to commence the service very soon," said Patel.
Speaking about the decision to have a flight to New York from Ahmedabad via Mumbai, Patel said that a direct flight is not viable on this route, due to a lack of enough passengers for the destination.
The minister blamed the state government for connectivity problems in the state. He said he expected the state government to take initiatives and come forward with a policy for intra-state connectivity. The state government needs to provide certain subsidies to the players so that they can start intra-state flights, he said. "The state government had shown interest in developing intra-state connectivity in July 2010, but we have not received any response thereafter," said Patel.
Harin Pathak, member of Lok Sabha from Ahmedabad-East constituency, said that he had been making efforts for the installation of Sardar's statue at the airport for a long time, and was happy that his wish was finally granted. He also demanded that the Ahmedabad airport be developed as an aviation hub. He has written letters to the civil aviation department and Airport Authority of India (AAI) regarding the same.
