Lost from memory, omitted from documents, Air India finally sells an old Boeing 737-200 plane
Mumbai (PTI): Lost from memory, omitted from many documents and over three years after the privatisation of Air India, a more than four-decade-old Boeing 737-200 aircraft of the airline was finally sold last week.
The cargo aircraft, grounded since 2012, later decommissioned and meant for the use of India Post, was all these years at a remote parking bay at the Kolkata airport till the Tata Group-owned Air India was asked to remove the plane.
On Friday, Air India CEO and MD Campbell Wilson told employees that the airline did not even know it owned such an aircraft until recently.
Last week, the airline completed the sale and transfer of a B737-200 aircraft (VT-EHH), which had been grounded since 2012. "Though disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual, this one is - for it's an aircraft that we didn't even know we owned until recently!" he said in a message to the staff.
Many years before privatisation, Wilson said this aircraft had been decommissioned in order to operate for India Post and was omitted from many documents.
"Over time, it was lost from memory and only came to light when our friends at Kolkata Airport informed us of its presence in a (very) remote parking bay and asked us to remove it! After verifying that it was indeed ours, we've now done so - and in so doing removed another old cobweb from our closet!" he added.
Information available on the aircraft tracking website planespotters.net showed that VT-EHH is more than 43.2 years old and was delivered to Indian Airlines in September 1982. The plane was leased by Alliance Air in February 1998 and returned to Indian Airlines as a freighter in July 2007.
Then, in August 2007, the aircraft came to Air India.
Under government ownership, Indian Airlines was merged with Air India in 2007, and Air India was acquired by the Tata Group in January 2022.
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Karnataka Minister urges Centre to launch Bengaluru–Vijayapura express train
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Infrastructure Development Minister M B Patil has urged the Centre to launch an express train service between Bengaluru and Vijayapura.
The demand comes following the completion of the 9.60-km double-line railway work between Alamatti and Wandal, which has been open for traffic since March 25, the Minister's office said in a statement on Wednesday.
"He has written a letter regarding this on March 30 to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Minister V Somanna," it said.
In the letter, Patil stated that the Alamatti–Wandal section, part of the Gadag–Hotgi double-line project, has now been completed. During an earlier meeting, it was mentioned that once this work was finished, an express train between Bengaluru and Vijayapura could be introduced. He has now requested that this be given priority.
He highlighted that thousands of people from Vijayapura and Bagalkote districts travel daily to Bengaluru for education, healthcare, administrative work, and business, and this train service would greatly benefit them.
According to him, currently, the train journey between the two cities takes about 15 hours, which is inconvenient.
He stressed the need to reduce this travel time to around 10 hours.
The minister also requested that trains departing from Bengaluru be given a limited stops upto Hubballi, and that trains proceeding to Vijayapura should be routed via the Hubballi and Gadag bypass lines.
