High airfare to Dharamsala worries tourism industry

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 19

There were Dalai Lama teachings at Dharamsala this week, which attracted an increased numbers of tourists. However, this rush also brought a steep hike in airfares to Dharamsala.

Rajesh, a tourist who flew in from Delhi this week, said he had to shell out Rs 13,000 for the flight. Sources here said the rates of some flights to Dharamsala had peaked to Rs 19,567 last week. Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of the Upper Dharamsala Hoteliers Association, said in case the airfare to Dharamsala was not reduced, it could hit the tourism in the area. Most of the tourists were now taking flights to Chandigarh or Amritsar and coming to Dharamsala by road due to high fares. The airfare from Delhi to Amritsar ranged between Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000. However, airfares to Dharamsala were unreasonably high, he said.

Anurag Thakur, BJP MP from Hamirpur, said the Gaggal airport in Kangra district was the only airport that could be expanded. The Union Government had asked the state government to acquire the land to expand the airport. However, the state government had expressed its inability to do the same due to which the project could not be carried out. He said the airfares for Dharamsala remained high as planes bigger than 70-seater could not land here.

Besides the Gaggal airport in Kangra, there are two domestic airports in Himachal— one each at Shimla and at Kullu. Sources said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had demanded about 500-acre land in Shimla for the expansion of the airstrip. However, such a huge chunk of land was not available. The present strip of Shimla airport can handle just 42-seater planes. Besides Air India, no other company maintains 42-seater airplanes at present as they are economically unviable.

The Kullu airport is located between two hills and it is very difficult to expand it. The airplane has to take a drop before landing at the Kullu airport and so bigger plans cannot land there, the sources said. The Himachal Government had written to the Government of India that flights to the state should be subsidised as was being done in Jammu and Kashmir and North eastern states. However, till date, the demand has not been accepted.

The only hope for decreasing the air fares to Dharamsala is a new policy of civil aviation under the Union Government to reduce the domestic airfare to just about Rs 2,500 for a one-hour journey. By this standard, the air fare for a two-hour journey from Dharamsala to Delhi or vice versa should be just Rs 5,000.