Airport of any city is the economic engine of the city as well as state but it seems that our special state of J&K does not understand this simple principle otherwise Jammu’s Civil Airport would not have been neglected by successive State Governments decade after decade.
It has daily footfall of approximately 4000 passengers with on an average 20 daily flights, first incoming at 8.45 am, first outgoing at 9.10 am whereas last incoming at 3.40 pm and outgoing at 4.10 pm despite having both CAT 1 ILS (Instrument Landing System) and ALS (Approach Light System) system installed at Jammu Airport which makes even night landing feasible but the official apathy is the only hindrance to avail these facilities. It’s very interesting that for India this airport is very strategic as such it comes under the control of both Civil Aviation through Airport Authority of India (AAI) as well as Defence Ministry and here lies the problem as Jammu Air force till date has not given permission to operate any flight after 4.30 pm from this airport as ATC is being operated by them only. It is not hard to understand the plight of a common man, be it a student or professional or for that matter a patient who cannot avail the late night flight facilities despite having the infrastructure worth crores in place. Fact is there is no direct flight with any metro city except Delhi and harrowing experience of changing terminals midnight for patients and females is itself a herculean task. But who cares?
Another bottleneck has been the length of the runway which at present is 6700ft against a minimum of 8000ft. The case was taken up by the earlier NDA Government in the year 2000 and after much delay and hindrances finally army vacated the additional land. Work on the extended runway is going on at war footing and is expected to be completed by March 2020 though it can have been completed 6 months earlier but the ILS installed on the extended runway right now which assists landing during fog/ smog cannot be moved as with winter approaching it is not worth risk to remove ILS as such AAI has no option but to wait till March 2019 when weather improves and remaining work will be undertaken without disturbing flights. Right now base of runway, water channel work, digging and boundary wall construction are in full swing. Importance of this extension can be gauged from the fact that every incoming aircraft has to apply emergency brakes during landing which can lead to tyre burst or overshooting of runway as such every landing is full of risks right now. Moreover due to short runway and application of emergency brakes every aircraft has to carry reduced payload of 60-62 tonnes only against full load capacity of 72 tonnes which effectively means less passengers resultant escalation of air fare as it is one of the highest in its segment and this steep air fare is in fact deterrent to popularity of air travel and result is though there was an increase of 25 percent in air passengers in 2017-18, this year has recorded a fall of 6 percent with many airlines withdrawing their flights. Reasons are multiple not hard to analyze but solutions are also there not much difficult to implement. With almost One crore pilgrims coming to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine every year AAI has taken the modernization of Jammu Airport seriously and recent upgradation of facilities are testimony to this. Terminal building has been expanded thereby doubling the passenger area and handling capacity, SHA big enough to handle 7-8 flights per hour with five boarding gates, 20 numbers of check in counters with additional 5 numbers of self – check-in kiosks, 3 Aerobridges at par with best airports of India at a cost of 10 crores , construction of additional link taxi track for convenience and reduction in aircraft manoeuvre time, rain water harvesting , retreatment of water , LED lights , modern facilities like escalators, separate childcare space to name a few.
25/11/18 Rajan Gandhi/Daily Excelsior
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It has daily footfall of approximately 4000 passengers with on an average 20 daily flights, first incoming at 8.45 am, first outgoing at 9.10 am whereas last incoming at 3.40 pm and outgoing at 4.10 pm despite having both CAT 1 ILS (Instrument Landing System) and ALS (Approach Light System) system installed at Jammu Airport which makes even night landing feasible but the official apathy is the only hindrance to avail these facilities. It’s very interesting that for India this airport is very strategic as such it comes under the control of both Civil Aviation through Airport Authority of India (AAI) as well as Defence Ministry and here lies the problem as Jammu Air force till date has not given permission to operate any flight after 4.30 pm from this airport as ATC is being operated by them only. It is not hard to understand the plight of a common man, be it a student or professional or for that matter a patient who cannot avail the late night flight facilities despite having the infrastructure worth crores in place. Fact is there is no direct flight with any metro city except Delhi and harrowing experience of changing terminals midnight for patients and females is itself a herculean task. But who cares?
Another bottleneck has been the length of the runway which at present is 6700ft against a minimum of 8000ft. The case was taken up by the earlier NDA Government in the year 2000 and after much delay and hindrances finally army vacated the additional land. Work on the extended runway is going on at war footing and is expected to be completed by March 2020 though it can have been completed 6 months earlier but the ILS installed on the extended runway right now which assists landing during fog/ smog cannot be moved as with winter approaching it is not worth risk to remove ILS as such AAI has no option but to wait till March 2019 when weather improves and remaining work will be undertaken without disturbing flights. Right now base of runway, water channel work, digging and boundary wall construction are in full swing. Importance of this extension can be gauged from the fact that every incoming aircraft has to apply emergency brakes during landing which can lead to tyre burst or overshooting of runway as such every landing is full of risks right now. Moreover due to short runway and application of emergency brakes every aircraft has to carry reduced payload of 60-62 tonnes only against full load capacity of 72 tonnes which effectively means less passengers resultant escalation of air fare as it is one of the highest in its segment and this steep air fare is in fact deterrent to popularity of air travel and result is though there was an increase of 25 percent in air passengers in 2017-18, this year has recorded a fall of 6 percent with many airlines withdrawing their flights. Reasons are multiple not hard to analyze but solutions are also there not much difficult to implement. With almost One crore pilgrims coming to Shri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine every year AAI has taken the modernization of Jammu Airport seriously and recent upgradation of facilities are testimony to this. Terminal building has been expanded thereby doubling the passenger area and handling capacity, SHA big enough to handle 7-8 flights per hour with five boarding gates, 20 numbers of check in counters with additional 5 numbers of self – check-in kiosks, 3 Aerobridges at par with best airports of India at a cost of 10 crores , construction of additional link taxi track for convenience and reduction in aircraft manoeuvre time, rain water harvesting , retreatment of water , LED lights , modern facilities like escalators, separate childcare space to name a few.
25/11/18 Rajan Gandhi/Daily Excelsior
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