Direct commercial flights from Durgapur's Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport in West Bengal to New Delhi, registered a successful start today. National operator, Air India recorded over-whelming bookings for its tri-weekly flights in the very first week of operations. The huge response for the first flight itself shows the demand from the region, said a representative of the Durgapur airport. <br/><br/>Durgapur's Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, India's first operational private Greenfield airport, developed by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Limited, is the latest addition to the country's civil aviation network. Air India will operate a 122-seater Airbus-319 aircraft on the Kolkata-Durgapur-New Delhi sector every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.<br/><br/>BAPL Managing Director Partha Ghosh told AIR ?today ?that the people of Durgapur and its catchment area would welcome direct connectivity with the national capital. Till now, the people from this region had to travel all the way to Kolkata or Ranchi airports, some 200 km away, to catch their preferred flights to New Delhi or elsewhere.<br/><br/>The scheduled commercial flight will depart from Kolkata at 08:30am and arrives in Durgapur at 09:00 am. It will take off at 09:30 am and reaches New Delhi at 11:45 am. The return flight will takes off from New Delhi at 12:35pm and reaches Durgapur at 02:40 pm. It will take off from Durgapur at 03:20 pm to reach Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, at 03:50 pm. <br/><br/> West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had traveled in the inaugural flight on December 7 last. She had said that the Durgapur-Delhi service would help in the growth of industry, commerce and also tourism in the region. The Asansol-Durgapur belt has a population of 1.1 crore, which is home to several power-intensive industries.