Back from Haj, and grounded at IGI for 3 days

New Delhi: For 50 Haj pilgrims from Kashmir, the last leg of their two-month journey has turned out to be most trying one. Normally a 45-minute journey, their flight from Delhi to Srinagar has been cancelled for three days running, due to bad weather. First in Srinagar and then, on Wednesday, in Delhi.
Twenty-three of the 50 are camped at the domestic terminal for two days, while the others have been shuttling between Haji Hotel in Nizammudin and IGI airport for three days now.
“We have not eaten anything for the last 30 hours,” Mir Ghulam Ahmed told Newsline. “It is so expensive — even a one-litre bottle of water costs Rs 30. We are poor farmers and had left with limited money; flight officials should at least feed us.”
Ahmed, along with his family and others of his village in Anantnag district, have camped inside the domestic terminal. They had brought ticket for Jetlite flight to Srinagar on Tuesday. But the flight was cancelled after security check, and even boarding. The routine followed today.
The second group, who had booked tickets with Spicejet on Monday, meanwhile come from the guesthouse in Nizammuddin every day. Ghulam Ali, a retired education officer from Badgam district, had left for a Haj trip and a subsequent pilgrimage to Iraq, Syria and Iran. “On Monday, we were inside the plane for 15 minutes; yesterday we remained inside for 30 minutes. And we managed to board the plane even today,” Ali said. “The only problem is, the plane did not take off.”
07/02/08 K Sobhana/Delhi Newsline

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, JetLite Feb 2008, SpiceJet Feb 2008