To ensure balanced regional economic development in the country, Punjab on Tuesday urged the Centre to allow airlines to choose different international airports across the country as their hub, instead of limiting the choice to the six metropolitan airports only.
Keeping in view the religious importance and huge flow of pilgrims and tourists to Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple), the State also demanded to make Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas International Airport an international hub with special focus on creating cargo hub as it is the old silk route to explore the Middle East trade potential.
Representing Punjab at a meeting held at Vigyan Bhawan under the chairmanship of Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, the State Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia made a forceful argument against the proposal of Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to limit international hubs to only six metros in India, as circulated in the draft policy proposed by the ministry. “The draft policy, if implemented, would be against the interests of people of various regions in the country as they would have to travel to international hubs for their onward journeys,” he contended.
Majithia underlined the need for cargo hubs in all international airports as limiting these hubs to only six metropolitan airports would harm the interests of other international airports and regions of the country. He pointed that due to this discriminatory attitude of the Congress led UPA Government, Punjab has suffered a lot on Civil Aviation front as Amritsar-london-Birmingham-Toronto flight was discontinued and the NRI Punjabis had to go to Delhi for reaching their destinations and then these flights go above Amritsar.
Underlining the need of developing Amritsar and Chandigarh international airports as international hubs, the Minister said, “Chandigarh Airport has touched the figure of 10 lakh passengers per year and growing at the rate of 20 percent increase annually.” He said that the development of Amritsar and Chandigarh airports could play an important role in decongestion of Delhi airport. He also pointed out that a private airport operator could not be allowed to hold the entire northern region under ransom by implementing its own conditions.
He also asked the Union Civil Aviation Ministry to take up the matter of renaming the new Chandigarh International Terminal as “Shaheed-E-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh International Airport, Mohali”. Majithia urged that the concession given to Air India to operate international destinations with one-stop within India should be extended to all other domestic foreign airlines also, since this will allow all airlines to connect even remote regions in the country to international destinations.
Demanding the rationalisation of the cost of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), the Minister said the tax on ATF should be made uniform for domestic as well as international operations. “Punjab took a lead in reducing VAT on ATF to 5.5 per cent from the earlier 20.5 per cent in 2012 and would now further bring it down to four per cent,” he said. He also urged for setting up of a MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) facility at the Chandigarh international airport to create a north Indian hub for the maintenance of aircraft.
