Mysuru: If everything goes well, under UDAN, Mysuru could find itself back on the airways map well before the start of the ten-day Dasara. The decision when exactly to operate will be taken in two or three days.

According to reliable sources, it is expected to start any time just ahead of the Dasara festival which draws lakhs of domestic and international tourists. Mysuru Airport Director Manoj Kumar Singh said the decision on the exact date of starting the flights between Mysuru and Chennai would be known in a couple of days.

Singh said,“There is a lot of effort going on to operate flight from Mysuru. Apart from having meeting with the Additional Chief Secretary in Bengaluru on August 31, I had also attended another meeting in Chennai on August 28. The state government including the elected representatives and bureaucrats are trying their level best to get the flight for Mysuru. Airport is ready to operate flight from tomorrow itself. To confirm the date, we have not received any written communication from the authorities but one thing is for sure that the good news will probably be announced in two or three days’ time. To resume flight from Mysuru, we can’t have bigger a occasion than Dasara.”

Under UDAN scheme, for a journey of less than one hour and within 500 km distance, the fare is fixed at Rs 2500 which is expected to encourage air travel. In October 2010, Kingfisher Airlines started flight services between Bengaluru-Mysuru-Chennai but the services were grounded in November 2011. Later Spice Jet operated between 14 January 2013 and 25 October 2014. Again air connectivity was started with Alliance Air which operated a 48-seater ATR from September 3 to November 17, 2015, but withdrew its services due to poor public patronage.