| News Details |
| Samphel demands a regular flight of UDAAN from Ladakh region | | argues area being economically backward with a limited season for earnings | 
Leh(Ladakh), April 28, (Scoop News)-District Congress Committee (DCC) president, Tsering Samphel, has urged the Union Government to launch a regular flight of UDAAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) service from Leh to its neighbouring destinations like Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh and Delhi.
“Astronomical airfares are being charged by airlines these days,” he lamented and said the tariff, at times, varies between rupees 20,000 and 30,000 to a remote but strategically a very important destination.
Samphel said students, patients and poor senior citizens of the area are the most affected people due to high airfares in open market ticketing.
The region remains cut off for nearly for eight months in a year by surface due to blockage of high passes and the only mode of transportation with rest of the country is because of air connectivity, he told Scoop News.
In this regard, he said several representations were made from, time to time, to the concerned authorities of the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for consideration but of no avail.
Surprisingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday inaugurated the maiden UDAAN flight on Shimla-Delhi route and simultaneously flagged off flights on the Nanded- Hyderabad and Kapada- Hydrabad sectors through video conference from Shimla, the capital of Himachal Paradesh.
Quoting Modi’s inaugural statement that he (Modi) wanted a man in streets wearing hawai chappals (slippers) to undertake a hawai yatra (air travel), Samphel said the majority of Ladakhi people are poor and are exclusively dependent on agriculture produce, live stock and a limited tourist season.
Prime Minister said 30 new airports will start commercial operations in Tier I and Tier III city routes within a year.
Alliance Air, a subsidiary of Air India will receive a subsidy of rupees 3,340 per passenger from the government for capping fare. The government will collect 80 percent of the subsidy by charging a levy up to rupees 50 per ticket on flights deployed on the national route. The remaining 20 percent will come from respective state governments.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that shortage of Aviation Turbine Feul (ATF) has forced the flight operators to impose restrictions on cargo which has resulted in scarcity of essential commodities in the cold desert region. The problem will, however, persist till the road opens.
According to informed sources, a phenomenal increase in air traffic of over one hundred thousand since last year increased the feul requirement. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has a limited storage capacity of 20,000 litres of ATF and has yet to enhance its storing capacity in the region.... |
| |
|
|
Share this Story |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|