One-way ticket?

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Sunday had genuine reasons to rejoice. As he flagged off a direct flight from Guwahati to Bangkok, his dream of converting the Assam capital into a real gateway of Southeast to India received a major boost. The three-hour flight has made the Thailand capital as close to Assam as Mumbai or Chennai, with more people from the Northeast now being given the opportunity as easily and almost at the same cost to Bangkok. This however is not the first and only direct flight between Guwahati and Bangkok. DrukAir – the Royal Bhutan Airlines has been already flying an aircraft from Guwahati to Bangkok for the past couple of years or more, in the process also connecting Guwahati with Paro airport in Thimphu. SpiceJet on the other hand had introduced a direct flight between Guwahati and Dhaka in July this year. Keeping in tune with it much-touted Act East Policy, the BJP government at the Centre had, under its UDAN scheme taken steps to connect as many as six destinations in South East Asia. As has been announced, Guwahati will soon also get direct flight connections with Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur and Hanoi. The Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport meanwhile is fast emerging as one of the busiest airports in the country. Latest statistics have said that the LGBI Aiport handled over 5.7 million passengers during 2018-19, which is a 23 per cent jump from the previous year’s figures. There was a time when Guwahati used to have only two flights a day, one to Kolkata and the other to Delhi. During 2018-19, the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport handled over 55,000 aircraft movements. This is indeed a feat to be reckoned with. Guwahati in fact is one airport in the country which is today well-connected with almost all cities of the country, and in this respect it is much ahead of some cities like Bhubaneswar and Pune too. But then, even as Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal flagged off the new Guwahati-Bangkok flight on Sunday, one is tempted to ask him a couple of very important questions. One – how many foreigners have been flying in to Guwahati in the existing Bangkok-Guwahati, Thimphu-Guwahati and Dhaka-Guwahati flights? Two – has the government mounted a sustained campaign in Thailand, Bangladesh and Bhutan, as also in those countries from where people fly in to these countries, to attract people from those countries to visit Assam and the Northeast? Three – what are the potential destinations and potential reasons that would motivate people in Thailand, Bangladesh and Bhutan to visit Assam and the Northeast? There have been reports that the royal family of Thailand is sending a delegation to Chalapathar, a village in Charaideo district in upper Assam next month for performing the Kathin Chibar ritual in the Buddhist monastery there. Has the Government of Assam, and all the departments concerned, drawn up a plan to make the travel and stay of the royal Thai delegation smooth and memorable, so that it will go back and spread the message about Assam in Thailand? Additionally, since both Thailand and Bhutan are Buddhist-majority countries, does the Government of Assam have in the pipeline plans to develop the several Buddhist places in the State, including infrastructure and connectivity?

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