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Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday inaugurated the direct flight between Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal capital Kolkata.

Spicejet will be operating daily flights and deploy its Q400,78-seater turbo prop aircraft designed for shorter distance flights on the route.

This new flight route is a part of 26 new domestic flights that SpiceJet is launching on Friday.

Speaking on the occasion, Scindia said that there has been massive expansion in the air services in the country in the last one year, particularly in Madhya Pradesh where there were 554 aircraft movement per week in July 2021 and the figure has now gone up to 980.

Providing details, he said that Jabalpur is now connected to 10 cities, and aircraft movement has gone up to 182.

Similarly, Gwalior was connected to 4 cities in July 2021 with 56 aircraft movement, and the figure has gone up to 100. Indore with 308 aircraft movement has leaped to 468 and is now connected with 20 cities.

The state capital Bhopal, which had air links with 5 cities in July 2021, is now connected with 13 cities and has 226 aircraft movements.

Khajuraho airport is also connected with Delhi, having 4 flights per week.

The Minister said that Jabalpur airport was established in 1930, and was used in the second world war. Now, the airport is being expanded, with runway length going up from 1,988 metre to 2,750 metre.

Terminal building capacity is being expanded from 200 passengers in peak hours to 250, and its area will go up from 2,600 sq mt to 10,713 sq mt.

Also, 3 aero bridges are being built, and a new ATC tower and fire station are being built. He assured that the expansion work, being undertaken at the cost of Rs 412 crore, will be completed by March next year.