AAI sits on upgradation of Srinagar Airport

Even as the Srinagar Airport has been continuously witnessing manifold growth in passenger traffic during last one year, the proposed infrastructure upgradation to cater the growing footfalls is moving at a slow pace.

While as the passenger traffic at the Airport grew by 18 percent during 2018 as compared to 2017, it has witnessed 13 per cent growthduring April-May 2019 as compared to the same period last year.

   

According to latest Airports Authority of India (AAI) data,5.29 lakh passengers travelled from Srinagar Airport during April-May 2019 ascompared to 4.70 lakh passengers in the corresponding period of the previousfiscal.

The other two international airports in Northern part of thecountry — Chandigarh International Airport and Sri Guru Ram Dass JeeInternational Airport, Amritsar have witnessed 74 per cent and 5 per centpassenger growth respectively with a huge contribution of internationalpassenger traffic. But at present, to the dismay of flyers both local andtourists, Srinagar International Airport operates only Hajj flights in theoverseas sectors.

To enhance its capacity, the recently-approved Master Planof Srinagar metropolitan region had pitched for upgrading infrastructure andnight-landing facilities at the airport that is of the preferred touristdestinations in the country. Requirement for enhancement was felt because theairport has a smaller parking area for aircraft landings and take-offs.

AAI last year had stated that they are going to set inmotion the upgradation of the airport by awarding the Rs 500-crore contract toRites Infrastructure Ltd, a government of India enterprise, for infrastructureenhancement at the aerodrome. The expansion of the airport was planned afterthe Union tourism ministry recommended its upgradation, stating that failure toupgrade its facilities would lead to “bad publicity of Kashmir tourism sector”.

Under the expansion plan, the floor area of the airport wassupposed to be doubled to around 33,000 sq m from the existing 16,700 sq m. Toaccommodate more flights, the airport would have also two new aircraftstands.  However, as per officials,Airports Authority of India (AA) is still in the drawing design process for theterminal expansion. 

 Srinagar AirportDirector, Akash Deep Mathur said the architectural designs are being finalisedat the AAI headquarters in New-Delhi.

As per officials, Srinagar Airport has seen an increase ofmore than 4 lakh passengers in last one year but outdated InstrumentationLanding System ( ILS) is one of the main reasons for delay of flights due toinclement weather. The Instrumentation Landing System is a ground-basedinstrumentation system that provides precision guidance to an aircraftapproaching the runway to enable its safe landing during reduced visibilityconditions, common in Kashmir during winters.

The annual footfalls of passengers at Srinagar is expectedto increase from 3 million passengers to 5.2 million passengers per annum. “The flights are expected to increased upto 40 flights in next few years. Byincreasing more space to the airport and improving landing facilities,  air travel is expected to become hasslefree,” Mathur said.

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