Lieutenant Governor (Contd on page 5) Rajnath dedicates 125 BRO projects to nation Defence production hits Rs 1.51 lakh cr, exports near Rs 24,000 crore: Rajnath LEH, Dec 7 (PTI) DEFENCEMinister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said India’s defence production has risen from Rs 46,000 crore in 2014 to a record Rs 1.51 lakh crore and the country that was import-dependent has emerged as a producer-exporter.

 

He said India once lacked a robust system to manufacture arms and equipment domestically but has witnessed a paradigm shift due to sustained efforts over the last decade. “Due to our hard work in the last 10 years, our defence production, which was approximately Rs 46,000 crore in 2014, has now grown to a record Rs 1.51 lakh crore. “Our defence exports, which were less than Rs 1,000 crore 10 years ago, have now reached nearly Rs 24,000 crore,” Singh said.

 

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh dedicated 125 border infrastructure projects of Border Roads Organisation (BRO) in Leh. (PTI) NEW DELHI, Dec 7 (Agencies) DESPITE the relaxation of flight duty time limitations rules, chaos across multiple Indian airports continued on Sunday morning, with atleast 650 flights cancelled across the country. Major air terminals, mainly at urban centres, have been hit the hardest, with a majority of cancellations concentrated at Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Delhi airports.

 

IndiGo said it is operating 1,650 flights of its 2,300 daily domestic and international flights on Sunday. Amid the chaos in airports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has served a show cause notice to IndiGo’s accountable manager. The worst hit, Telangana’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad saw 115 flights cancelled on Sunday, with 54 arrivals, and 61 departures affected. According to a statement from the Delhi Airport, at least 59 departures and 50 arrivals totalling to 109 flights have been cancelled on Sunday.

 

Amid the large scale flight disruptions, the DGCA has served two show cause notices, with one being issued to the airline’s CEO Pieter Elbers on Saturday, and another to the “Accountable Manager”. Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation and Cooperation Murlidhar Mohol said that they are closely monitoring the situation and have taken immediate action against the airline for not adhering to FDTL.

 

Meanwhile, IndiGo confirms that they have showed “further significant Operational improvement” and is “progressively restoring network stability” a day after they took up a system reboot for managing the cancelled flights, thereby improving the situation for passengers today. Similarly, refund and luggage process is I “full action, both for direct bookings and indirect bookings” The airline has reiterated confidence its timeline of stabilising operations network by December 10, after giving a window between December 10- 15.