Cooch Behar, July 17: Come Tuesday, the people of this district headquarters will witness the resumption of commercial flights that will link Calcutta and Guwahati after a gap of 18 years when chief minister Mamata Banerjee flags off a flight via video conferencing from Siliguri.

The services will be operated by the Northeast Shuttles with an 18-seater Dornier aircraft and there will be six flights each to Calcutta and Guwahati a week.

District Trinamul Congress president and Natabari MLA, Rabindranath Ghosh, will be at the airport here on Tuesday to receive the flight that will fly in from Guwahati. “It is because of our chief minister’s initiative that commercial flight services are resuming from this airport after a long 18 years,” said Ghosh.

The last commercial flight to and from Cooch Behar had landed and taken off in 1993 when the now defunct Vayudoot, a subsidiary of then Indian Airlines, used to operate services between here and Calcutta.

Sources at the Airports Authority of India (AAI) said the Northeast Shuttles had been granted permission to operate an 18-seater Dornier aircraft on the route.

“We understand that the July 19 flight will be a token one and the Northeast Shuttles will begin regular services between Guwahati and Calcutta with stopover in Cooch Behar from August 1,” said an AAI source.

Ghosh said the first flight was scheduled to reach Cooch Behar at 11.30am on Tuesday and Mamata would flag off its trip to Calcutta via video conference from Siliguri at noon.

“There will be six flights each a week in both the directions. Of the 18 seats available in the aircraft, eight will be bought by the state government on each flight. An agreement has been reached between the airline and the government recently.”

The people of Cooch Behar are elated by the reintroduction of commercial flights from the north Bengal district.

“We are very happy about this positive development. There will be no shortage of passengers as there has been a good demand for the services from the people in Cooch Behar as well as the towns like Alipurduar in the Dooars,” said Rajendra Kumar Baid, the secretary of the Cooch Behar district traders’ body.

The AAI sources said the Cooch Behar airport was ready for the service.

“The terminal has been completely renovated for the use of the passengers. The control tower is there as are safety requirements like fire tenders. We are, however, not yet aware of the fares that will be charged between the destinations,” an AAI official in Calcutta said.