Jammu, Srinagar airports’ expansion on cards to offer better facilities to flyers: Scindia

The Ministry of Civil Aviation is consistently doing its thing to improve better connectivity across the country under the UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme. The latest development on this end comes from the Union Minister for Civil Aviation - Jyotiraditya Scindia, revealing that the Centre is keen on expanding terminals of Srinagar and Jammu airports. 

"The government is committed to developing Srinagar airport and the current terminal is being expanded so as to provide better facilities to tourists and locals," Scindia said during question hour in Lok Sabha. He added the Union government would also expand infrastructure facilities at the airport in Jammu. He said the terminal at Srinagar was being expanded and expansion plan for Jammu airport will entail an expenditure of Rs 800 crore.

The minister was responding to a question from National Conference member Hasnain Masoodi who sought an expansion of airline facilities in the valley and stated that according to official estimates, 80 lakh tourists visited Srinagar this year.

Scindia said that an atmosphere of peace and economic development has been established in Jammu and Kashmir after years due to the work done by the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.

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Also, the minister has recently launched a direct flight between Mumbai and San Francisco. Air India will operate the flight three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays with the newly-inducted Boeing 777-200LR aircraft. This will take Air India`s India-US frequency to 40 non-stop flights per week.

Presently, Air India operates non-stop flights from Mumbai to Newark, from Delhi to New York, Newark, Washington DC, San Francisco, and Chicago, and from Bengaluru to San Francisco. This will be the third Indian city after Delhi and Bengaluru to have a direct flight to San Francisco.

With inputs from agencies