Communications Minister Yitzhak Ben-Aharon told the Israel Parliament today a special allocation of 33,000,000 pounds ($18,300,000) would be used to develop Israel’s transport system, including reconstruction of Lydda International Airport to adapt it to handle jetliners. He estimated the cost of this job at nearly $10,000,000 and said the work would be completed early in 1961.
The rest of the development appropriation, the minister said, would go to railway improvements and port development.
Mr. Aharon told Parliament that E1-A1 Israel National Airlines had earned 47,000,000 pounds ($26,100,000) last year–a 31 percent increase over the previous year. Income from shipping, he said, rose 20 percent to 72,000,000 pounds ($40,000,000). Railway passenger traffic had increased five percent in the year and freight handled, 10 percent.
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