Agartala, January 22 (TIWN): The Centre will provide special incentives to airlines for increasing air connectivity to the North East, informed highly placed source of Agartala Airport Authority here today. According to the source, Ministry for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) the road and rail network is not there due to difficult terrain.

A lot of dependence is on air travel, that is why the ministry  are requesting airlines to increase the number of aircrafts and frequency to these States.Recently union ministry of civil aviation has convened a meeting of all commercial airline carriers including the Air India to discuss the status of air connectivity in the North East.

CPI-M Chief Whip in Loksabha and MP from Tripura  Jitendra Choudhury met Union Civil Aviation minister  Ashok Gajapathi Raju during previous parliament session   and  demanded to increase more flights  in the state. The Agartala Airport is currently estimated to generate the second largest air traffic in the northeastern region after Guwahati and it is legitimate demand to start more flights and regulate airfare.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been emphasising on ensuring social and economic inclusion of North East with other parts of the country.It is only after the Prime Minister's directive that now the Government has decided to send at least one Union Minister to visit any of the eight North Eastern States -Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Tripura -every fortnight.