Briefed PM about development of Birsi airport, restart of flight operations, says Praful Patel

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aircraft made a brief touchdown at the new Birsi Airport in Gondia in Maharashtra on Sunday morning en route to Dongargarh in poll-bound Chhattisgarh.

PM Modi landed at Birsi airport at 9:15am and left in a helicopter for Dongargarh, a popular pilgrimage spot, in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandagon district where he met Jain seer Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj.

The PM also offered prayers at Maa Bamleshwari Temple, located on the foot of a hill in Dongargarh in the poll-bound state.

Rajya Sabha MP Praful Patel, of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party, told PTI he had briefed the PM about the development of Birsi airport and plans to restart passenger flight operations from December 1.

IndiGo is scheduled to launch its daily service from Gondia to Hyderabad from December 1, an AAI official had earlier said.

Daily flights on the Indore-Gondia-Hyderabad route were flagged off on March 13 as part of the Centre's UDAN scheme.

However, commercial services from Birsi airport were halted in August last year when regional carrier flybig stopped its services five months after the launch.