The Tripura cabinet on Tuesday gave its nod to a proposal to operationalise international airway link between the northeastern state and Bangladesh, informed minister Sushanta Chowdhury.

Chowdhury said, “The Tripura cabinet under the chairmanship of chief minister Manik Saha approved the proposal of flight connectivity between MBB Airport in Agartala and Chittagong. The fare for each person is slated to be Rs 4500.”

He further said, “The state government in consultation with the Civil aviation Ministry took the decision to introduce flights in Agartala-Chittagong route. We have been given two choices—either we could go for Agartala-Dhaka route or Agartala –Chittagong route.”

“After thorough discussion, Agartala-Chittagong route has been finalized,” the minister added.

The flights on this route will ply thrice a week, Chowdhury further mentioned.

He said, “Three days a week the flight services will be available from MBB Airport Agartala. For introduction of the flight services, the state government will spend Rs 15 crore as Viability Gap Funding (VGF).”

According to the cabinet minister, VGF is a subsidy that will be allocated to airliners that decide to take up this route in order to cut losses in the initial days of the launch of the service.