Air India’s cabin crew on a Delhi-Moscow flight were kept in detention as they had landed in the Russian capital before the validity of their visas had begun, Rajya Sabha was informed today.

“Yes Sir. The visa validity of the three cabin crew who operated the Delhi-Moscow flight of Air India on September 13, 2014, started from September 14. Hence, they were allowed to proceed to the hotel on September 14, that is midnight of September 13,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said.

He was replying to a written question whether the cabin crew were kept in Russian detention because of not having valid visas on their passports “due to an oversight”.

Sharma replied in the negative to another question whether Air India was fined a lakh Russian roubles for this oversight.

To another question, he said the government planned to modernise Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports through the public-private partnership (PPP) route and take up those at Kolkata and Chennai under management and operation contract, indicating involvement of the private sector.

“It is planned to take up Chennai and Kolkata airports under management and operation contract,” he said, adding that the development and modernisation of airports at Ahmedabad and Jaipur airports would be taken up under the PPP mode.

“Investment and timeline of the project depends upon various factors including cabinet approval, issue of Request for Qualification, Request for Proposal, selection of successful bidders and finalisation of Concession Agreement etc.,” Sharma said.