The Assam government on Saturday signed an MoU with Flybig airline to operate daily flights between Guwahati-Dibrugarh-Guwahati and Guwahati-Silchar-Guwahati routes in the state.

Assam Tourism Development Corporation (ATDC) MD Kumar Padma Pani Bora signed the MoU on behalf of the state government and director Sanjay Natavarlal Mandavia for Flybig here in the presence of Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Sarma said the MoU will ensure a rise in the number of daily intra-state flights, assured connectivity and assured price as the agreement has decided to keep a tab on the pricing as the maximum price, which has been fixed at Rs 4,000.

Under the MoU, the intra-state flights will be operated under the vulnerability gap funding.

Appealing to the masses to use the airline, Sarma said the flights operate at 50 per cent of its seating capacity, anything less than will be met by the state government as per the MoU to ensure the routes remain viable for the operator.

The new services will benefit Mohanbari airport in Dibrugarh and Kumbhirgram airport in Silchar.

The new service will give more options to a traveller from Silchar and Dibrugarh to Guwahati, a regular flyer said.

The road distance between Guwahati to Silchar is about 320km while Dibrugarh-Guwahati is over 440km.

Sarma said the state government was studying the feasibility of replicating the same services from Jorhat and Tezpur airports, among others, to boost intra-state air connectivity further, thanking Flybig and ATDC for coming forward to facilitate air services in non-UDAN routes.

The aviation ministry launched the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS)- UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) on 21.10.2016 to stimulate regional air connectivity and make air travel affordable to the masses to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. There are over 453 Udan routes in the country.