The Union Budget proposal to make regional defunct small airports operative is a welcome step to boost tourism especially the high income and middle income tourists who would like to have short stint along with promoting business. The states of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab have seven defunct airports. Jammu and Kashmir too has some airstrips in Rajouri, Poonch built by army and one at Sudhmahadev in Udhampur district built by Yoga Guru Dhirendra Brahmachari for personal use lying defunct. The Union Government’s move to inject between Rs 50 and Rs 100 crore each for such facilities to improve regional air connectivity is welcome but here also Jammu and Kashmir remains neglected because till date the State Government was never able to project the economic potential of these airstrips. Despite huge investments by the state governments at present, six airports in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh are defunct which include the airports at Ludhiana – Punjab’s industrial capital – and Pathankot. In fact, the Pathankot facility was inaugurated as late as 2006 but has remained non-operational for the past 10 years. The Central Government had also announced in 2013 to make Karnal and Hisar airports in Haryana operational but nothing has been done so far. Besides improving regional connectivity, the Union Finance Minister is hoping that this will boost the regional economy as well. The revival of more airports means more flights and more revenue in the region. The malady with these regional airports is despite spending crores by the Union Government they have failed to generate the much needed passenger and freight load to make them economically viable. So far as Jammu and Kashmir is concerned it has three airports at Jammu, Srinagar and Leh. If the State Government wants to boost trade and tourism it can link these airstrips with the main airports by providing better linking infrastructure so that people from interiors can utlise these services along with the tourism which would change the economic face of the area. The Jammu and Kashmir Government should work on promoting these airstrips for boosting tourism and these can be used as nodal points at the time of calamities to carryout rescue and relief operations like the devastation seen during the 2014 floods and landslides. Any such futuristic plan to revive the defunct airstrips in Jammu and Kashmir would surely give wings to the trade and tourism in the region.
