The Communist Government of West Bengal, a quarter century ago, ventured into the civil aviation sector. Named Bengal Air, a consortium of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation [WBIDC] & Bengal Air Services Limited [BASL] was to operate it.
Initial plans involved operating 3 Hawker Siddeley HS-748-2B aircraft functioning as a feeder route air service operating the 'Calcutta - Coochbehar - Bagdogra - Shillong - Agartola - Jamshedpur - Patna - Ranchi - Bhubaneswar - Rourkella' route. It had contracted the Nepalese Airlines, Necon Air to provide technical support. Incidentally, both Airlines sported similar logos, a Trishul.
Plans involved acquiring the aircraft from Canadian firm, Dellair Trading Inc. However, the deal did not go through & Bengal Air never did take to the air. These airframes, readied to join the fleet of the ill-fated airline, were photographed at the Winnipeg International Airport in 2001. While these 2 airframes - C-GBCY & C-GBCS [also ID'd As VT-BAB] never made it to India, the third VT-BAA landed, but did not operationalise. It lies in a decrepit condition at the Kolkata airport. In 2001, the consortium made a renewed offer to commence operation provided it were provided Rs. 28 Crores.
Godspeed
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