Bhubaneswar, March 8: To woo more tourists to Buddhist circuits in Odisha, the state government is pinning its hope on GoAir to link the city to Varanasi and Sri Lanka.
In the past, an Air India flight used to link the city to Varanasi, but the lack of passengers forced the national carrier to stop its service in 1994.
While the revival of the Varanasi route will facilitate arrival of tourists from South-East Asian nations, the link with Sri Lanka will also bring tourists from the island nation that shared trade and spiritual link with ancient Kalinga.
Historians claimed that Sri Lanka had deeper link with the people of Kalinga because maritime trade was active across the entire Indian Ocean territory.
Tourism minister Ashok Chandra Panda said: "We are in touch with the authorities of GoAir and they have assured us to link the city with Varanasi. After an increase in fleet size, they will link the city to Sri Lanka.''
Speaking about Panda's claim, GoAir vice-president (airports) Kamal Kiknani said: "We are only holding preliminary discussions with the state government. Formal meetings will be held soon."
Panda", however, sounded enthusiastic about the possibility of air links to Sri lanka and Varanasi.
He said as thousands of tourists were visiting Buddhist sites in central and northern India - Varanasi and Bodhgaya - a regular air link with Bhubaneswar would not only ensure tourist footfall, but also boost tourism-based economic development.
"Already the tourism department is trying to develop infrastructure at Buddhist heritage sites such as Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri, Udayagiri, Langudi and nearby Kayama so that tourists will feel comfortable during their stay,'' he added.
In a related development, the civil aviation ministry has asked IndiGo to include the Biju Patnaik International Airport with an international operation as the airline is currently having the highest number (11) offlights to and from the city.
Airport director Sharad Kumar said: "We have information about the ministry asking IndiGo for the international operation and they have sufficient number of aircraft. If they agree, they might start the operation. The state government might be in discussion with GoAir and I am happy that it is trying to motivate airlines to start international operations.''
Kumar said that for an airline to have a route for foreign destination, it should either have five years of civil aviation operation or 20 aircraft in its fleet. As of now, GoAir has 19 aircraft with its fleet.
With Nabakalebara (change of idols of Lord Jagannath and his siblings) festival slated to be held in Puri on July 17, airlink to more domestic and international destinations would definitely help in getting more tourists for the grand celebrations.
