Kashmir Digits

 The airports of Srinagar and Jammu will soon be operationalizing commercial flights at night hours by incorporating suitable facilities and arrangements.

The Union Home Secretary, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, chaired a high-level meeting to review the implementation of various schemes in Civil Aviation, Agriculture and Horticulture sectors in the two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Chief Secretary, J&K, Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Advisor to LG Ladakh, Umang Narula, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Pradip Singh and Joint Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare participated in the meeting.

The Chief Secretary, J&K, apprised the Union Home Secretary that infrastructural and technical facilities exist at Srinagar Airport to operate flights up to 10:00 pm. However, during the winter months visibility is greatly reduced causing interruptions to air connectivity.

Highlights

The Secretary, Civil Aviation informed that to improve night-visibility at the Srinagar Airport, efforts are afoot to complete the lighting project at the earliest which would facilitate flights during low visibility round-the-year through concerted coordination with Indian Air Force.

Similarly, the ongoing air-strip repair works at Jammu Airport will be completed this week followed by installation of lights by the month-end to enable operation of night flights at Jammu Airport, he said.

It was further informed that the Ministry of Civil Aviation is planning to establish international air connectivity through the Srinagar Airport which currently operates international flights for Hajj pilgrimage only.

Further, it was informed that the UT Government has recently signed a MoU with Go airlines for subsidized air transportation of vegetables and fruits from Jammu and Kashmir, of which the first consignment of Srinagar’s cherry and Jammu’s licchi was dispatched to Dubai and Mumbai, respectively.