Kishtwar to have a small airport

KL Report

New Delhi

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, G.M. Siddeshwara informed Lok Sabha on Monday that the union government has so far identified 50 locations with potential for small airports in various states, an official statement said.

The statement included Kishtwar district of J&K state as one of the potential locations for a small airport.

“Kadapa, Tirupati, Vijayawada,Warangal in Andhra Pradesh, Along, Daparizo, Pasighat, Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Jorhat,Rupsi,Silchar in Assam, Gaya, Raxaul in Bihar, Bilaspur, Raigarh in Chattisgarh, Daman, Diu in Daman & Diu, Bhawanagar, Jamnagar, Kandla, Keshod in Gujarat, Hisar, Karnal in Haryana, Kishtwar in J&K, Deoghar, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Belgaum,Hubli in Karnataka, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, Akola, Amravati, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Solapur in Maharashtra, Jharsuguda in Odisha, Ludhiana in Punjab, Bikaner, Kishangarh, Kota in Rajasthan, Thanjavore in Tamil Nadu and Agra, Allahabad, Bareilly, Faizabad, Kanpur, Meerut, Moradabad and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh,” the statement gave the names of the potential locations.

Meanwhile the minister further informed Lok Sabha that the Government has planned to expand the Kargil Airport to enable operations to all major transport aircraft. “The Kargil Airport belongs to the State Government of J&K and was leased to Airports Authority of India (AAI). AAI has transferred the operational control and maintenance to Indian Air Force (IAF),” the statement said.

Presently, the Runway dimension is 6000 ft X 100 ft (1829M X 30M) and the Terminal Building has the capacity to handle 100 peak hour passengers at a time. The airport is equipped with proper facilities for civil air operations, the statement informed.

However, no airline is operating from this airport as it is not commercially viable. IAF has been mandated to take up the development work at Kargil Airport including Runway extension by 3000 ft. Approval of the State Government has been sought for extension of operational control of the airport for further period of 20 years to enable IAF to take up the development work of the airport.

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