Manipur Unrest: Air Ticket Prices For Imphal-Kolkata Flights Touch Rs 20,000

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The air ticket on the Imphal-Kolkata route has spiralled almost 5-6 times to Rs 20,000 per ticket. Debjit Dutta, chairman, Indian Association of Tour Operators, West Bengal Chapter, said, "As the situation in Manipur remains tense and people are rushing to leave Imphal to go to Kolkata and as well as their hometown. In this tense situation, they are facing a big problem of Air ticket which is almost high with nominal fare." The chairman said this was because of the situation in Manipur which is likely to remain the same in the coming few days.

"If we talked about flights from Imphal to Kolkata, Air India operated daily one flight in the morning. IndiGo operated four flights from Imphal to Kolkata including connected and direct flight. All flights were packed to capacity for the next two days," Dutta said. Dutta said Air India's fare from Imphal to Kolkata is approximately Rs 17,000 for business class on Tuesday and Rs 14,000 for May 11 on economy class.

He also mentioned that Air Asia has one flight from May 15 whose fare is Rs 4,000. "IndiGo's direct flight on May 10 from Imphal to Kolkata is Rs 11,000 and connected flight have charged Rs 20,000 per head," the chairman said.

AirAsia, Flybig, and Alliance Air on Monday scheduled eight relief flights for the stranded people during the prevailing situation in Manipur. These operating relief flights are part of a central government initiative to ensure the evacuation of stranded people from the trouble-torn spots of the Northeast state at the earliest.

Meanwhile, AirAsia, on Monday, operated one additional commercial relief flight to Imphal from Guwahati, according to Guwahati Airport Authority. Flybig scheduled two relief flights on Monday, according to Guwahati Airport Authority. One operated in the morning and the second one is scheduled to fly out of Imphal at 18.40 hours in the evening.

According to Guwahati Airport Authority, Flybig flight brought 70 students to Guwahati airport on the morning flight. It also said Alliance Air has operated a total of five relief flights as of today.

Air India on Monday said it started operating special flights to and from Imphal on Saturday and Sunday, to facilitate people stranded amid the ongoing violence and ethnic strife in Manipur.

The violence in Manipur between the Hindu Meiteis and the tribal Kuki, who are Christians, erupted after a rally by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) on May 3. Violence gripped the entire state for several days, prompting the Central government to deploy paramilitary forces to bring the situation under control.