Navi Mumbai International Airport starts commercial flight operations
Mumbai (PTI): The Navi Mumbai International Airport commenced commercial flight operations on Thursday, marking a key milestone for India's civil aviation sector, while expanding air travel capacity for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).
The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) began operations, with the first flight from Bengaluru, operated by IndiGo, touching down the runway at 8 am.
The aircraft was accorded a ceremonial water cannon salute on arrival, a time-honoured aviation tradition marking NMIA's first commercial touchdown and departure, the airport operator said in a statement.
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The inaugural arrival was followed by the airport's first departure IndiGo flight 6E882 to Hyderabad at 08:40 am, completing NMIA's inaugural arrival and departure cycle, it said.
On the first day, IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and Star Air will operate domestic services, connecting the new facility to nine destinations across India.
The airport will handle 15 scheduled departures on the first day, it said, adding that during the initial phase, the facility will operate for 12 hours -- between 8 am and 8 pm, with up to 24 scheduled daily departures to 13 destinations and the capability to manage up to 10 aircraft movements (arrivals and departures) per hour, it added.
The airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 8 this year.
The first phase of the five-phased airport was built at Rs 19,650 crore.
By the time all five phases of the airport are completed, it will be catering to 90 million passengers annually, along with dedicated cargo terminals and multimodal connectivity.
The entire project is being developed in multiple phases under a special purpose vehicle, Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL), in which the Adani Group has a 74 per cent stake, and the remaining 26 per cent is owned by CIDCO.
From February next year, operations are planned to progressively scale up to round-the-clock services.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
