COOCH BEHAR AIRPORT

Inauguration of air service defers

"Deccan Charters expands commitment to passenger air service – with new chartered flight services. You are invited. Please join us for the grand launch of India's first of its kind daily charter flight service, to be inaugurated on Monday, the 16th of August 2010 at 12-noon. Inauguration by Capt. Gopinath, chairman, Deccan Charters Ltd. Venue: Airport Authority of India, Cooch Behar Airport, Cooch Behar, West Bengal, Pin 736101."

The above text is an invitation recently sent through e-mail to media persons in Cooch Behar. On receiving it they got delighted because it meant that at last the air service was truly going to be revived. In the invitation the media persons were also advised to carry press identity cards at the inaugural ceremony for security reasons.

When asked the officer-in-charge of Cooch Behar Airport Mr Samar Kumar Biswas said he has no knowledge about inauguration of air service on Monday. The AAI official advised the media persons to contact the person who sent them the invitation. When contacted over phone on Monday morning, Ms Pamela Ghosh of Perfect Relations in Kolkata replied that they were conveyed of the postponement of the programme at the last moment and so they failed to convey it to the media persons she invited.  

It may be recalled here that in the past years a number of ministers and elected representatives and also many bureaucrats had announced probable dates of inauguration of resumption of air service between Cooch Behar and Kolkata. All that promises had vanished in the blue and newer promises came up to replace the old ones. The latest one was from Perfect Relations that was probably entrusted to do the public relations on behalf of Deccan Charters Limited. But, it too proved a barren promise.