Joy Roy Choudhury – Kolkata

Mihin Lanka, Sri Lanka’s national low cost carrier will soon start its operations from Kolkata. It will connect the city, thrice-a-week with the Lankan capital Colombo, from later this month. At present, passengers from Kolkata have to take a connecting flight from either Bengaluru or Chennai to reach Colombo. Presently, the airline operates flights to Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Madurai, Gaya, Varansai, Thiruvananthapuram and Tiruchirapalli on a code-sharing basis with Sri Lankan Airlines. Mihin Lanka is likely to place either an A-320 or A-321 in the Kolkata-Colombo sector. Speaking on this, Subhash Goyal, chairman – Stic Travels, president – IATO, and Mihin Lanka’s India representative stated, “The flight will operate thrice-a-week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Not only will the passengers from the eastern part save time, but also the return fare is much lower than the options currently available.”

Goyal felt that the introduction of the air-service will boost tourism in West Bengal and especially in neighbouring Odisha, which shares a long history with Sri Lanka. Religious tourists from Sri Lanka can now easily come to Kolkata and make the city its hub before travelling to important Buddhist sites in Odisha. Thousands of Buddhist tourists from Sri Lanka come to India every year to visit the religious places linked with the life of Lord Buddha. Mihin Lanka already operates flights to other important Buddhist religious spots like Gaya and Varanasi. “Bhubaneswar too can be added at a later stage,” added Goyal.

Mihin Lanka also proposes to join hands with local tourist operators and hoteliers to offer special Durga Puja packages. “We will organise special travel packages during Durga Puja and Diwali with attractive discounts on hotel rooms and sight-seeing,” said Chiranjiv Mitra, sales manager – passenger and cargo, Mihin Lanka.