Sindhudurg-Mumbai flights launched, Konkan beaches merely few hours away now

MUMBAI: The beaches of Ganapatipule are now less than two hours away from Mumbai, what with Alliance Air launching ATR flights to Sindhudurg on Saturday.
The Alliance Air flight, operated by a 72-seater ATR 72-600, will depart Mumbai daily at 11.35am and land in Sindhudurg at 1pm, thus covering the 530 km distance in about 85 minutes. The return flight will depart at 1.25pm and land in Mumbai at 2.50pm.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, civil aviation minister, virtually inaugurated the terminal building and flagged off the first Sindhudurg-Mumbai flight, operated under RCS-UDAN scheme. “The inauguration of the Sindhudurg airport and start of flight to Mumbai marks a new chapter in the glorious history of the Konkan region. This development will open new avenues of growth of local trade and tourism. I am sure, with huge potential of the region, number of daily flights will increase to 20-25 within next 5 years,” Scindia said.
The greenfield airport is built on 271 hectares land at Chipi-Parule in Sindhudurg district at an estimated cost of Rs 520 crore. The airport has been in the making for eight years and the construction by IRB Infrastructure Developers Limited, under Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation began in February 2013, said a release issued by the Press Information Bureau.
The inauguration marked the commencement of the 61st airport under the UDAN scheme and operationalisation of the 381 routes under UDAN. The financial incentives in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF) is being provided from the Centre, state governments and airport operators to selected airlines to encourage operations from unserved and underserved airports under the scheme.