Direct flight between Tokyo and Chennai should be re-introduced, appeals TN CM

Tamilnadu CM Stalin visits Japan and Singapore. Photo Credit: Twitter
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Tamil Nadu: Tamil Chief Minister M K Stalin is on a trip to visit Singapore and Japan. He will be coming back to India on Wednesday after his 9 days long foreign trip which started on May 23. Meanwhile ko Mahi has reached out to Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia regarding re-introducing of a international flight. In the letter, he expressed the need to reintroduce the direct flight between Tokyo and Chennai. He also said that the number of flights between Singapore and Madurai should be increased.

Ahead of his arrival, he has pointed out that there is no direct flight between Chennai and Tokyo as of today. However, in October 2019, All Nippon Airways (ANA) had launched a direct flight between Chennai and Tokyo. It was later made to stop functioning during Covid-19 pandemic. However, there is a huge demand from the Chinese business community in Tamilnadu to reintroduce the flight. The problem they are facing right now is that due to absence of direct flight it is taking them 7 hours extra time to reach the destination. This time itself is more than double the travel time that the direct flight would take.

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Global Investors Meet 2024 and Investments

Meanwhile, during Stalin’s visit to both the countries, the Tamil nadu government has signed at least twelve Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) with both Japan and Singapore. The aim behind the visits was to attract Investments and to invite potential investors to attend the Global investors meet which is being held in Chennai around January 2024. Stalin said Tamil Nadu will host the Global Investors’ Meet in January 2024. As we are trying to attract greater investments from Japan, reintroduction of direct flights would really be a commendable step.

600 Japanese companies having establishments in Tamil Nadu.

Chennai is without a doubt the home to largest Japanese community in India. It boasts of more than 600 Japanese companies having establishments in the state. Under the Japan-India Investment Promotion Partnership Program, 12 industrial townships were established across the nation. However, 3 of them are in Tamil Nadu itself stated he. Moreover, Japan is also a home to impressive number of Tamilians.

On the other hand, Singapore also has a huge tamil population of nearly 4 lakh people. “I would be really grateful if the request of permitting more flights to operate between Singapore and Madurai is favourably considered,” Stalin said.

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