Kashmir is the “Heaven on Earth” but surely the entry and exit to this place is at times (especially in winter) through hell. Be it either via the airport or the national highway. The air travel encompasses airlines, tickets, aerodrome, its approach and its security management. Airports have to be approachable, user friendly, easy to the masses but secure at the same time. As per the status of the city the airlines have to be proportionate, tickets reasonably prized with little inflation at odd times of the year. The airport landing system has to be updated and upgraded as per the demography and seasonal requirements. But air travel to and fro from Srinagar lacks most of these characteristics and it turns out to be a nightmare to most especially in the harsh winter months.
Srinagar airport is not in a small area like that at Jammu or Ladakh. It has huge expanse with hundreds of acres under its jurisdiction. The ingress to the airport is all in one, no differentiation between the arrival and the departure side as far as the vehicle flow is considered. With so much of land the authorities have failed to establish a different lane for departures and one separate for the arrivals. With so much of space available that has been fenced off for the residential purposes, adding two more lanes on either side up the airport and thus redoing the ingress and outgoing paths will go a long way in easing the long jams that are seen on most of the days.
Though labeled as international but international it turns for few days of Haj Pilgrimage, other than that it has failed on that front. Many years back flights did take off from here to Dubai but this turned out to be a brief affair only. One may not expect it be same as any airport of Kerala but giving ample time for the things to set in, would have been reasonable before calling the flights off. With many people now going for Umrah and Ziyarats all year around from Kashmir international flights would have eased the travelers and lessened the impact of such pilgrims at the Delhi’s IGI airport. Forget it being international; we could with lot of persuasion convince the central authorities of officially naming this airport after the most revered saint of Kashmir. Officially we may have named it Shiekh ul Alam International airport, but once it comes to the day to day usage it is described as SXR airport only.
Coming to the air strip and the aerodrome part which has been extended, renovated and redone but that is not at all sufficient considering the present circumstances. We know about the winter cloud cover that engulfs the airspace but no we haven’t procured the latest landing systems to guide the decent or ascent of a plane as happens in most other countries. And in the aerodrome one can easily notice the chirping and observe the to and fro flights of birds inside the hall and it is apt to say, it has become more of a bird sanctuary. The bathrooms are glaring examples of engineering marvel with the commodes dug out just at the ground level. One fails to understand if the campaign of Swach Bharat is at all adhered to in these wash rooms.
Airlines have their role in messing up the journey. Knowing well the trajectory of the travelers it should be natural to increase the airline number or airline space in times of the maximum demand, rather than keeping the ticket numbers limited. Ticket prices on this sector are exponentially higher and they sky rocket especially at the peak summer season or in the non peak winter weeks. They touch the seventh sky if the road gets closed for whatever the reason. Rather than increasing the flight numbers in such a situation the airlines increase the price. Our successive governments have failed to negotiate any deal with the airline players who wishfully escalate on this sector.
The porter and the parking services too need a mention. In all other state airports the porter charges (subletted to contractors) are Rs 100 but here it has been done to Rs 150, reasons not specified. With so much of a land available ideally this airport should be different in providing parking free to all but no we have to have revenues to fill the central coffers out of a service that should have been free considering the quantum of land that this airport has managed from the locals. Even the parking that till recent times was under locals has now been allotted to an outsider who is not differentiating between the drop- in passengers and the ones who are arriving. A mere 10 minutes is what one is given to traverse a to and fro distance of about a kilometer, drop in the passengers, the bags and hush up in the jam. Why should one pay for dropping someone at the airport, it is beyond the realms of justification. Even in Delhi there are no charges for dropping a person in a private vehicle. The high ups, the judiciary, the bureaucrats and the administration of Budgam who whisk away securely in their vehicles will never understand this ordeal, while a local and a taxi wala will bear this brunt, who in fact will charge it from the poor customer.
Lastly on the physical front one has to carry the luggage and get it checked/screened at multiple places much to the annoyance of one and all. This could well be limited by acquiring the high end screening systems.
The IAF and AAI who run the defense and civil wings of the airport may have answers to most of this but then bringing problems to the notice of administration at large is a citizen’s duty.
(Dr Muzafar Maqsood Wani is Consultant Nephrologist, SKIMS, Soura)
mmmwani@gmail.com