The Minister of Civil Aviation Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation (Gen)Dr V.K Singh (Retd) inaugurated the direct flight between Bhopal and Chennai by Indigo yesterday.
The inaugural event was graced byShri Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Dr L Murugan, MoS of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry, Dairying, Information & Broadcasting, Shri Vishwas Sarang, Minister, Medical Education, Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief & Rehabilitation, Govt of Madhya Pradesh, Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Member of Parliament, Bhopal, Dr VeeraswaamyKalanidhi, Member of Parliament, Chennai North, Shri Rajeev Bansal, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, and many other dignitaries.
The airline will be deploying its A320, a 150-seater twin turbofan engine passenger aircraft and is primarily used on Domestic routes. With this new flight launch, total number of departures from Bhopal on average will be10 daily flights with 44 daily departure flights from the state of Madhya Pradesh.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said, “It is a fortunate day for me that heart of India (Bhopal)is being connected to the centre of development, business, progress as well as religious emotions (Chennai). From July 2021, Bhopal which was previously connected with 5 cities, is now connected 10 cities – Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Prayagraj, Agra, Ahmedabad, Raipur and Chennai. There is also an increase in weekly flights from Bhopal from 94 to 216 flights, an increase of 150%.”
Commenting on the work done by his ministry from Madhya Pradesh in the field of civil aviation, the minister said “A new Flying Training School (FTO) in Khajuraho will be inaugurated and recently Khajuraho was connected with Delhi. In Bhopal, the tender process for an MRO is been awarded and work will start on it. In Indore, an international cargo facility is already operationalized, and a domestic cargo facility will be constructed by the year end. We are also discussing with the state government about how to expand Indore Airport on the basis of a greenfield airport. In Gwalior, both ministry and state government are working for establishing a new airport. 5 drone schools in Gwalior, Satna, Jabalpur, Indore, Bhopal were sanctioned by the ministry.”
Regarding the work on Chennai 2nd Airport, Shri Scindia said “We are committed to build 2nd Airport in Chennai. Our metros across the countries need 2nd Airport. We are building a second airport for Delhi in Jewar at a cost of Rs 38,000 crore. A second airport in Mumbai is being built in Navi Mumbai at a cost of Rs 17,000 crore. For Chennai, 4 sites were suggested by the state government to the Ministry. From those 4 sites, we have selected 2 sites and have reverted back to state government waiting for answer on the final site so that the work can be initiated to make sure that the 2nd airport in Chennai comes to life as soon as possible.”
The minister further emphasized that “415 routes and 66 airports, heliports, water drome have been operationalized under the UDAN scheme and over 91 lakh people have benefitted from it. Over 1 lakh 75 thousand flights are flown under this scheme.The Ministry of Civil Aviation plans to construct 34 new airports taking the total number of airports to 100 new airports in India which stood at 74 airports in the year 2014.”
Dr VK Singh said “In the recent times, Madhya Pradesh has seen many flight under various schemes to and from various places, especially connecting the main cities to various parts of the country. I would like to congratulate Indigo and all our officials in Ministry of Civil Aviation and State Governments of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh who were involved in this particular venture. This is a splendid thing and I hope that you (Indigo) will also connect Bhopal and Indore with Hindon so that people of Western UP can easily travel to Madhya Pradesh.”
The people of Bhopal and its adjoining areas will be benefitted by getting a direct air connectivity to Chennai which will facilitate seamless movement of passengers between Bhopal and Chennai and vice-versa. This new route will not only enhance regional connectivity but will also promote trade, commerce, and tourism between these cities.
The Flight schedule is as below:
| S No | Departure | Arrival | Airline | Frequency | Departure (Hrs.) | Arrival (Hrs.) | Aircraft Type |
| 1 | Chennai | Bhopal | Indigo | 3 | 1725 | 1935 | A320 |
| 2 | Bhopal | Chennai | Indigo | 3 | 2005 | 2240 | A320 |
