Team News Riveting
Silent baggage belts, seats covered in dust and the bones of dead animals scattered at the entrance welcomes one at the India’s “ghost” airport of Jaisalmer.
Built at a cost of $17 million (approximate Rs 127 crore), it is one of the 8 airports proposed and constructed during the tenure of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. None of them have entered service.
Jaisalmer Airport, located in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, was supposed to boost the Jaisalmer town’s tourism after its construction finished in 2013. Until today though, the airport was never officially inaugurated and it has seen no scheduled flights.
In just two years, Rs 600 crore was spent on 25 airports across the country in just two years when these airports were technically operational but did not handle a single scheduled flight. The maximum number of such ghost airports lies in Maharashtra – at Gondia (which was former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s constituency), Juhu, Kolhapur and Sholapur, Akola and Jalgaon. Rajasthan and Punjab have three each in the list, at stations such as Jaisalmer, Bhatinda, Ludhiana and Pathankot.
Why these airports were built in the first place? The answer lies partly to do with local politics coupled with inability of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to judge where an airport should be in a state so that airlines find it viable to operate flights.
The issue comes to the relevance in the backdrop of Air India Express flight skidding off the table-top runway while landing at Kozhikode Calicut yesterday. The debate has started why such airports should remain operational where landing always remains a test for the pilots.
Aviation experts feel table-top runways are not the issue; it is the unplanned airports that really pose big challenge. Many airports in India, especially in North East are either table-top or partially table-top. The location matters more.
Just 100 kms from the Calicut, another international airport had been built in Kannur that too has a table-top runway. Was it required? The issue is open for discussion.
Since inception, Kannur airport is finding itself heading into headwinds over a number of issues. The aviation ministry records reveal, against the terminals designed with a capacity to accommodate nine million passengers a year, the airport is handling an average of 4,000 passengers per day, taking the total passenger volume in the opening year to less than 15 lakh (1.5 million).
