Jamshedpur: Deccan Charters, a subsidiary of Air Deccan that will launch a Jamshedpur-Calcutta service by December, will be starting flights in the Cooch Behar sector too.

"We have taken two flights on lease from South Africa for the Cooch Behar sector. We will be starting the services on all the routes in the sector during the last week of December. Sonari Airport in Jamshedpur is ready for services to begin. But, some other airports, like Rourkela, received DGCA clearance recently," said Captain Madhu K Valsaraj, the president and chief pilot of Deccan Charters, a subsidiary of Air Deccan.

He said these issues delayed their flight plans but that the exact flight schedule would be finalised now within few weeks.

Air Deccan had bagged all six routes from Calcutta during the first round of bidding under the Centre's UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme in March.

The airline will offer services in the Calcutta-Burnpur, Calcutta-Cooch Behar, Calcutta-Jamshedpur, Calcutta-Rourkela, Calcutta-Durgapur and Calcutta-Bagdogra sectors.

Executive director of the Centre's regional connectivity scheme Ganesh Kumar Chaukiyal said private operators had been given time till December to launch services.

"As per the terms, they they were supposed to start operations in September. In October, they had sought a month's extension citing delay in DGCA clearance for certain airports, lease of flights and other issues. This month they have said that things are in final stages and they would be starting flights by the end of December," he told The telegraph from Delhi.

Residents of Jamshedpur welcomed the news.

"Traders and businessmen will benefit immensely as we will not have to drive along the pothole ridden NH-33 to meet our clients in Ranchi," said Jamshedpur steel trader Suresh Sonthalia.