Air India urged not to shift Vadodara office

A strong representation was made to a special team of Air India (AI) on retaining the national carrier's 40-year-old office premises located at Fatehgunj in the heart of the city. The team was sent yesterday to look into the demand of Balkrushna Shukla, the city mayor and MP, who wants the AI to retain the office in the same area given its central location.

Shukla had raised the demand in the letters written to Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Arvind Jadhav, Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Shukla did so after learning of Air India management's move to shift the rented office to the first floor of a building off Vasna Road on the city's outskirts.

Shukla said "The Air India has a huge two-floor office in Fatehgunj taken on rent about 40 years ago. There is scope for its further extension. There is no logic behind the move to shift the office to Vasna Road."

Indian Airlines opened the office at Fatehgunj in 1969 when the first Mumbai-Vadodara flight became operational. In the past 40 years, Fatehgunj has become a posh and cosmopolitan area and it was difficult for the airline to get such a premises, Shukla said. The local airline staff too supports the demand, he added.