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| Srinagar Airport gets a massive upgrade, Jammu assurances for now | | Discrimination is in Air! | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 27: With the announcement over the massive upgrade of the Srinagar airport in terms of flight operations coming to the fore, Jammu once again has been thrown to the wind with no word over making any such facility available to the airport of the winter capital of the erstwhile state.
As per the report, Srinagar Airport will operate around 30 additional flight services this summer and it will take up the total number of flight services to around 60.
Reports informed that this summer schedule Srinagar Airport will be operating with 30 more flights, taking up the total to 60. Of this figure, at least 50 to 55 will operate in to and fro manner, making it to around 100 flight movements a day. The purpose of the measure as per the reports is to draw more tourism towards the valley, which will ultimately have a good impact on the economy.
As far as Jammu airport is concerned, there are mere 46 flights being operated from there. In spite of the assurances that there will be a massive upgrade for the airport, no concrete action has been taken as of now. In 2019, expansion work of Jammu Airport was started at a cost of 159 crores, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the work was halted for a while.
Situated 14-kilometers from the international border between India and Pakistan, the Jammu Airport also known as the Satwari Airport used to offer no more than "primitive services" to the fliers. Against the need of 8000 feet stretch, the runway built in asphalt is only 6,700 feet long.
This deficit created problems for the flight take-off and landing when the pilot had to put in "extra efforts to control the aircraft”.
Though this airport caters to around nine lakh passengers annually, successive regimes had failed to upgrade it in line with the needs of the times. Observers said the airport neglect affected tourism in the winter capital, which is famous as City of Temples. Jammu dominates pilgrimage tourism in the state. The cave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi alone attracts over one crore pilgrims annually from far and wide of the country and beyond. But the airport was unable to meet the regional needs.
The Airports Authority of India had published data and statistics of the airport between the time period of April 2013 to March 2014. According to this data, the Jammu airport is ranked the 27th busiest airport in India, with total passenger traffic of 845,555. |
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