In the run-up to Durga Puja, a gift from one bastion of Communism to another. This month-end, as the festive season wraps up in West Bengal, people from the state planning a package tour to China will have another reason to celebrate because they will no longer have to go to Delhi to board a flight.

For the first time, Kolkata will be linked directly to China as Eastern China Airline starts operating flights between the West Bengal capital and Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan province.

“Every year a lot of people from eastern India visit China, either for business or for travel. That has necessitated the inauguration of direct flights between Kolkata and Kunming,” Mao Siwei, the first Consul General of China to Kolkata, told The Indian Express.

The much-awaited Chinese Consulate at Kolkata is going to open at the end of this year and Siwei is currently looking for office space. Staying at a hotel for the time being, Siwei said Kolkata has always been a hub for Chinese people. “It is the only city in India which has a sizeable Chinese population staying in ‘China Town’. You won’t find another China Town in any other city of this country,” he said.

Siwei himself is an old India hand, having worked in Chinese missions in New Delhi and Islamabad in the ’90s. He was also a Visiting Scholar at Delhi’s JNU between 1993 and 1998.

Trade is at the back of the mind of both governments and the direct flight is another step in that direction. Last year, the volume of trade between India and China stood at Rs 78,400 crore. Siwei expects it to rise once the Kolkata mission starts functioning.

... contd.