Industries seek commencement of air service

Nashik: The Nashik Industries & Manufacturers' Association (NIMA) on Saturday urged Union defence minister Manohar Parrikar to commence air service from Ozar airport, which is yet to take off for past six years.
Plans of launching air service from Nashik to Mumbai stalemated after GVK, a private firm that operates the Mumbai terminal, refused slots to Alliance Air ‘due to runway capacity constraint'.
A delegation led by NIMA president Sanjiv Narang met Parrikar and urged him to pursue the issue.
Parrikar, in turn, invited the NIMA delegation to Delhi to hold discussions on the issue and also asked its members to pursue the issue with the state government.
Air service from Nashik was stopped in November 2009. Alliance Air, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India Ltd, had decided to commence flights between Mumbai and Nashik on March 27, and subsequently on May 1 and June 1, but it was denied slots by GVK on all three occasions.
Narang said, "A terminal meeting international standards is ready at Ozar but Nashik continued to be sidelined when it comes to air service."
NIMA secretary Mangesh Patankar said, "Nashik is emerging as one of the most favourable destinations for business in the state. Besides the ultramodern developments taking place on the industrial front, Nashik is fast emerging as the most sought after destination for educational institutes from all fields, be it engineering, information technology, medical, law, pharmacy, science or design. The sister city project between Nashik and China's Yueyang city has also been proposed. There is also a huge potential for tourism development here. Hence, there is need to commence national and international flights from Nashik at the earliest."