By IANS
New Delhi : India and Russia have agreed to allow their designated carriers to fly over each other's territory and enhance the frequency rights after a review of their bilateral civil aviation pact in Moscow.
"The increase in flights will be to the cities of Ahmedabad and Amritsar, each of which will get three additional flights from Russia," an official statement said here Friday, a day after the two sides renegotiated their bilateral agreement.
R.K. Singh, joint secretary in the ministry of civil aviation, led the Indian delegation, while the Russian delegation was led by G. Loschenov, the chief negotiator in the department of state policy for civil aviation.
"A mutually beneficial agreement was reached under which the designated airlines of the two countries will continue to be permitted to overfly the territory of the other country without restrictions," the statement said.
"The leaders of both delegations expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the discussions and re-affirmed the need to hold frequent consultations for further strengthening the civil aviation relationship between India and Russia," it said.
The traffic rights were also increased to 52 flights a week for the designated carriers of each country from 46 at present.
Russia had said last month that it would disallow Indian airlines to fly over its territory from May 15, inviting similar action by India. But the matter was kept in abeyance after the two sides decided to review their aviation pact.