Seeking personal intervention of Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today urged him to immediately start International flights from Chandigarh International Airport. In a letter to Ajit Singh, the Chief Minister reiterated his request to direct Air India and other Airlines to start international flights from Chandigarh forthwith. Badal pointed out that the International Air connectivity from Chandigarh has become all the more important now because of the upcoming International Airport at Mohali which would connect the entire Northern region comprising Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttrakhand and even the Western part of Uttar Pradesh. For want of any International flights from Mohali and Chandigarh daily a large number of passengers from the Northern states were left with no other option but to travel Delhi for boarding these flights, which not only caused undue harassment to them but also resulted in huge wastage of time, money and energy. The Chief Minister demanded immediate international flights to be made operational from Chandigarh otherwise the entire purpose of incurring huge expenditure on this prestigious International Airport would be defeated if our national carrier Air India failed to operate from here on International Routes. Realizing the fact of Air India’s inability to introduce direct domestic flights from Amritsar and Chandigarh to Nanded in Maharashtra for facilitating the pilgrims to pay obeisance at Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib due to resource constraints, the Chief Minister impressed upon Ajit Singh to use his good office asking other schedule Airlines in India to service this important and potentially busy sector.