The Hindu
MANGALORE, April 22: The first international flight from the Bajpe airport may not take off on May 7 as planned by Air India Express, the low-cost airline of Air India, unless the State Government makes serious efforts to set up immigration facilities at the airport within a fortnight.
Official sources told The Hindu here on Friday that the Police Department sent a proposal to the Government a few days ago to sanction the required manpower and other facilities to set up immigration facilities. The proposal says the immigration unit at the airport needs 70 police personnel, fax and photocopying machines, computers, vehicles and other facilities.
"To handle the immigration requirements at the airport, police personnel should be trained in the specified department in Mumbai for 21 days," a senior police official said.
The police official said the Government could send trained police personnel from Bangalore to handle immigration requirements on a temporary basis till the district police are trained. But the airport in Bangalore is already facing a dearth of police personnel to handle immigration facilities. Therefore, it was unlikely that trained police personnel would be sent to the airport here, he said.
Sources in the Ministry of Civil Aviation said that in no airport in the country were full-fledged immigration and customs facilities provided when international flights started. Existing facilities were used to handle the requirements. The immigration and customs units were upgraded gradually. The same principle should be applied to the Bajpe airport also, the sources said.
The Airports Authority of India has already reserved space for immigration and customs facilities at the airport. The authority will provide the basic infrastructure to handle immigration and customs requirements, sources said.
Air India Express has planned to operate a Thiruvananthapuram-Mangalore-Dubai flight from May 7 if immigration and customs facilities are ready. Initially, it will operate four flights a week. They will become daily flights later.
Sources said the customs authorities in Mangalore are ready to handle the customs requirements. The onus is now mainly on the State Government to arrange for immigration facilities.