Thursday, June 22 2006 11:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: The Sahara group resumed charge of Air Sahara from midnight yesterday (June 21,2006) night and started normal operations.

Sahara resumed the charge after the expiry of deadline for transaction of acquistion of Air Sahara by Jet Airways.

When contacted a Sahara Group official told sources from Lucknow that, "We have resumed charge and have started operating the airline from midnight last night."

Sahara's taking over of operations comes after the Rs 2,300 crore acquisition of Air Sahara by Jet Airways collapsed, over five months after the biggest deal in Indian civil aviation sector was announced.

Air Sahara President Alok Sharma had told reporters in New Delhi late last night that if there was no response from Jet Airways, Sahara group would take back control of Air Sahara operations.

"Wish us luck, Air Sahara is on its own from tomorrow," Sharma told reporters.

With this, management control of Air Sahara, which was being virtually run by Jet for the past few months, would be restored to Subroto Roy's Sahara Group.