New Delhi: Kerala’s public road transport Monday got a ‘green’ boost with the Centre agreeing to set up CNG plants in the state at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore.

This assurance was given by Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Transport Minister Aryadan Mohammed met him seeking central assistance to save the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation which is incurring monthly loss ranging from Rs 70 crore to Rs 90 crore.

“Moily has assured us that Rs 100 crore will be sanctioned to KSRTC to set up CNG plants. It is a great help and it will save the struggling public transport sector,” Chandy told reporters here.

At present, the Corporation has 5,555 schedules and 6,179 buses. The average earnings per km works out to round about Rs 30.83 and the average earnings per bus (EPB) works out to Rs 10,049.

New Delhi : Another round of fare hike in premier trains looks imminent with Railways revising food tariffs for Rajdhani, Duronto and Shatabdi trains.

‘It will be a minor hike ranging between Rs 15 and Rs 20 for Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto passengers after the
revision of catering charges of the premier trains,’ a top Railway official involved with the decision making process
said.

The revision will be announced shortly and the hike will be implemented as soon as the software is updated accordingly,
the official said.

Once the revision is announced, fares of premier trains will witness hike for the second time after the latest
increase on January 22.

Food tariff was revised for mail and express trains last month after 10 years, but it did not include catering services
of Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto trains.

Passengers in premier trains are entitled to meals and snacks for which charges are included in the price of the
ticket.

Railway Ministry had constituted a committee to study and suggest revision of tariff and menu of standard meals in
premier and other mail and Express trains.

‘The decision to revise the tariff was taken after examining the committee’s recommendations as well as
suggestions from the Railway Board,’ the official said. Cash-strapped Railways has announced a slew of measures
to improve catering services in all trains. While some items like cold drinks and chocolates are to be removed from the
menu of premier trains, ice creams and curd will be supplied from reputed brands only.

‘We are working out details which include changes in the menu in Rajdhani and other premier trains with the aim to
provide good quality food to passengers,’ he said

Thiruvananthapuram : The Cabinet has directed not to scrap KSRTC services. Decisions which cause inconvenience to the public should not be taken. The govt has taken this stand after chief secretary informed the cabinet that public transport system may be exempted from the diesel hike.

The Cabinet meet also directed that KSRTC would evaluate filling fuel from Supplyco pumps. The meet also concluded that a final decision on this will be taken after knowing if the public transport system will be given the subsidy or not.

New Delhi: Troubled Kingfisher Airlines would have to submit a detailed plan to aviation regulator DGCA before they are allowed to resume flights, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said today.

Asked whether the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was likely to move ahead with suspending or cancelling
the crisis-ridden carrier’s flying license, he said it was for the regulator to decide after it studies their reply to the show-cause notice issued to them.

DGCA had yesterday issued a show-cause notice to Kingfisher asking why its flying license should not be
suspended or cancelled as it had grounded its entire fleet and failed to offer safe, efficient and reliable service. It has
given the airline 15 days to reply.

‘This (suspension or cancellation) has to be decided by the DGCS. It will depend on what reply they give, what plans
they have (to resume operations). How they will lease (aircraft). There are disgruntled employees and there is
safety concern,’ the Minister said.

In the notice, DGCA Chief Arun Mishra said it had been observed that the airline was not adhering to its flight schedule and ‘abruptly cancelling their flights time and again during the last 10 months’, causing great inconvenience to the
travelling public.

He also took note of the lockout which had led to ‘suspension of all their flights’ and that the airline had
‘failed to establish a safe, efficient and reliable services as required’ under the rules.

Maintaining that this amounted to Kingfisher not complying with the provisions of the Aircraft Rules 1937, the
regulator asked the airline why action should not be taken against it for this ‘violation’.

Kingfisher had declared a lockout on September 28 till October four, cancelling its entire flight schedule, and extended it till October 12 later. The lockout was declared after the management failed to resolve the deadlock with its
striking employees, including engineers and pilots, over non-payment of salaries for last seven months.

Responding to the notice, a Kingfisher spokesperson said, ‘We will send a detailed response to the DGCA well in time. We
will also submit a comprehensive plan for restoration of services after negotiations with our employees.’

Thiruvananthapuram: Minister for Non-Resident Keralite Affairs, K.C. Joseph Saturday went hammer and tongs against “the callous attitude” of Air India in regularly cancelling its flights to the Middle East.

“We have made numerous representations to all concerned to end this callous attitude towards Kerala, but there seems to be no respite,” Joseph told reporters here.

“We have already expressed our displeasure and will take up this issue with the central government,” said Joseph.

It was chaos at the international airport here Saturday morning following the cancellation of the Sharjah flight that was scheduled to depart at 8.45 a.m.

Though Air India officials say they had intimated the passengers Friday night, the passengers complained about not being informed.

Air India officials have made arrangements for 40 passengers to board the evening flight to Sharjah.

K.V. Muraleedharan, president of the Kerala Association of Travel Agents said: “It’s most unfortunate that while the cancellations are only from Kerala, no flights have been cancelled from Delhi or Mumbai.”

The state cabinet had submitted a memorandum in this regard to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his visit to inaugurate the ‘Emerging Kerala’ investors meet at Kochi earlier this month.

Chennithala writes to PM on AI’s ’injustice’

Thiruvananthapuram:  KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene to stop the ‘injustice’ meted out to Kerala by Air India by repeated cancellations of international flights.

In a letter, he said that for the last several months, Air India had been neglecting Keralite passengers by cancelling flights without prior information and steeply increasing fares.

Air India had cancelled 168 flights from Kerala in recent months, often without prior notice, he said. Non-Resident Keralites are suffering on account of this approach by the airline and many of them faced loss of jobs on expiry of visas due to lack of adequate number of flights.

The situation was being exploited by private airlines who were further increasing their charges, Chennithala said and requested the Prime Minister to immediately intervene to find a solution to the issue.

KOZHIKODE: Lorries and mini lorries in the state will suspend its services from monday, said lorry owners welfare federation. The lorry owners demand an increase of 30 % in its rent following the hike in diesel price.

Kochi: Low cost carrier IndiGo will be launching direct flights daily from Kochi and Chennai to Dubai from August 25.

As an introductory offer, the airlines would be offering return fare of Rs 11,200 on the new flights in both sectors, IndiGo President Aditya Ghosh told reporters here.

There are also plans to launch direct flights from Kochi to Muscat and from Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai, he said.

IndiGo has 58 Airbus and A320 aircraft, he added.

New Delhi: In a big boost to ailing Air India, the government today approved a turnaround plan (TAP) to restructure the operations and the finances of the cash- strapped carrier, including infusion of additional equity. ‘The turnaround plan of Air India has been approved,’ Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). The CCEA approved the TAP and the airline’s financial restructuring plan (FRP), which includes additional equity infusion by the government. Besides, the issue of induction of the much-awaited Boeing Dreamliner-787, par of the TAP, was also given the green signal by the CCEA, official sources said. They said the issue of allowing foreign airlines to
invest in Indian carriers could be taken up by the Cabinet next week.

As part of the airline’s restructuring plans, the government had announced infusion of Rs 4,000 crore during the current fiscal in the 2012-13 Union Budget. This would raise the airlines’ equity base to Rs 7,345 crore. US aircraft manufacturer Boeing is expected to deliver the first of the 27 Dreamliners, ordered in 2005, to the national carrier next month. The delivery of these aircraft was initailly to commence from 2009 but the US aircraft-maker deferred it for various reasons, including labour unrest. The SBI-led consortium of 19 banks had last month approved the FRP which includes debt restructuring of Rs 18,000 crore by the banks and a committed equity infusion by the government.