The Hindu : To South Africa with Laloo

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 15, 2003

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National

To South Africa with Laloo

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi March 14. The World Cup cricket fever has hit politicians and industrialists as well. Many of them are headed for South Africa hoping to witness Saurav Ganguli's men romp home victorious. A Parliamentarian team will be led by the RJD leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav, while a 12-member CEOs delegation will be headed by Shekhar Dutta of PRGO Limited.

Air India is being asked to operate a special flight on the eve of the semi-finals on March 19. Although it is not going to be commercially viable, if politicians can have their way, a 210-seater Airbus will be flown specially to ferry cricket enthusiasts. AI does not operate any flight to South Africa and the special flight will have to return empty.

As of now, Rajya Sabha members Laloo Prasad Yadav, Prem Gupta, Prafulla Patel, Suresh Kalmadi and Vijay Darda are one group of politicians who have firm plans to travel to South Africa around March 21 before the finals. Shekhar Dutta and company will leave on March 22. They have also sought meetings with the South African Ministers for Transport, Trade and Industry.Both these delegations will travel by the South African Airlines.The other group will comprise parliamentarians Rajiv Shukla, Vijay Mallya, Kirti Azad and Dinesh Trivedi. It will fly on a special chartered plane belonging to Vijay Mallya, industrialist.If Air India operates a flight, then it is likely that some Ministers would be on it. Maybe, the politicians and industrialists would more than make up for the Prime Minister's absence.

Boost for Durban hotel industry

PTI reports:

Indian cricket fans have given the hotel industry on Durban's beachfront a major boost over the next week when Saurav Ganguly's team will be in town to play Kenya in the World Cup semi-finals.

Thousands of Indians, including the `Bharat Army', have booked hotels and other accommodation in the city for the semi-final.

The general manager of the Elangeni Hotel, where the Indian team will be staying, said his hotel and other sister hotels were fully booked for this weekend until the semi-final.

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