Bengal Global Business Summit - only four private aircraft landed at Kolkata airport

#BengalGlobalBusinessSummit #mamatabanerjee #kolkata Bengal Global Business Summit called by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Bsnerjee saw only four private aircraft land at Kolkata airport - 60 parking bays had been kept ready in anticipation of huge numbers of aircraft that would arrive. But, that did not happen.
The summit is being touted as a stupendous success by the state government and, for the records, investment proposals of Rs 250,253.74 crore (2.5 lakh crore) are believed to have been received - but, the picture at the airport on that day was miserable. Only four aircraft in 60 parking bays indicated the level of big business's interest in the two-day event that ended.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 11 January 2016.

The four aircraft were Mukesh Ambani's Airbus 319 - it was in bay number 43. The other three, all medium-sized business jets, were of steel maker Sajjan Jindal, media magnate Subhash Chandra and a politician: Union minister Nitin Gadkari.
Compared to this, at the last Vibrant Gujarat Summit a year ago, Ahmedabad airport had to really struggle to find space for the 60-plus private planes that touched down.Most of these aircraft had brought in industrialists. The aircraft had to be accommodated in nearby airports and had to return to pick up the guests.
The situation is similar in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore are similar - during such business summits, planes have to be parked at nearby airports.
Incidentally, while Kolkata boasts of a new terminal sprawling across 2.33 lakh square metres, it receives few passengers and flights. About 22,000 fliers use the terminal on an average day compared with 84,700 in Delhi and 73,700 in Mumbai. Moreover, the city has lacked direct air connectivity to Europe for nearly four years now since German airline Lufthansa pulled out of the city in March 2012. British Airways had withdrawn its Calcutta operations in March 2009.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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