The permission for GMG to introduce its service to these metro cities has been given under a bilateral agreement and as part of India's increasingly 'open sky' policy, the sources said.

Both Mumbai and Chennai are considered lucrative routes as a lot of Bangladeshis visit the places for medical and business purposes. The GMG had recently launched flight service between Kolkata and Chittagong.

Air Sahara, one of India's leading private airliners, is likely to introduce its service between Kolkata and Dhaka in about a month's time.

With the growing liberalisation of India's civil aviation sector and Indian government's decision to allow its domestic private airlines to fly abroad, a number of low-cost air carriers from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, UAE, Sri Lanka and Kuwait have shown interest in the burgeoning air traffic of India, said the sources.

The prospective flights of these international airlines would be short-haul in nature with a maximum duration of five hours, aviation sector sources said adding that the initiatives are likely to propel the growth of air service sector in India as well as other countries in the region.

Meanwhile, both Air Sahara and Jet Airways have begun to acquire wide-bodied aircraft to introduce their services to Asean countries, London and the US.

The two Indian carriers had embarked on the acquisition drive following the government's decision to allow private airlines to expand in the international sector beyond the Saarc region.

Jet Airways and Air Sahara are already operating flights to Colombo and Kathmandu. Air Sahara is in talks to lease half a dozen Boeing B777 and Airbus A340 planes for its long-haul international services to places like London and New York.