Adampur-Delhi air route discontinued

Jalandhar, June 2

Even as the NRIs, industrialists, traders and politicians of Jalandhar have been long demanding the re-commencement of Adampur-Delhi air route, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has specifically said the route has been discontinued.

The information came from Joint Secretary of the ministry Usha Padhee in reply to a request put in by AICC spokesperson and advocate Jaiveer Shergill to the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia. Shergill, who hails from Jalandhar, had met Scindia on May 12 to hand over his request letter to restart the flights that got discontinued in November 2020 (barring two-day operation in April 2021).

In the reply, the joint secretary has written: “I would like to inform that Adampur airport has been identified for the operation of Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) flights under Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN). The RCS routes connecting Adampur with Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur have already commenced. The RCS route Adampur-Delhi-Adampur has now already been discontinued after completion of a three-year term by M/s SpiceJet. Besides, the RCS routes connecting Adampur with Jaipur and Mumbai commenced and stopped due to the second wave of Covid and commercial reasons and are yet to re-commence.”

She has further written, “Kindly note that the UDAN is a demand-driven scheme wherein airline operators assess the feasibility of operation on a particular route and bid under the scheme from time to time. The selection of airlines is made through a bidding process. In case, any airline submits valid bid for operations of flight for connecting Adampur, the same will be considered as per the scheme provisions.”

The reply of the ministry official has caused a lot of setback to everyone who was awaiting the commencement of Adampur-Delhi air route. Industrialist Charanjit Maingi said: “Of the three routes, the Delhi route has been on our top demand. The industry in Jalandhar cannot progress if there is no direct air connectivity. The re-starting of air route can give a good fillip to the businessmen who have faced huge losses in Covid times”.

Even Shergill too has commented: “While the district administration and concerned officials are busy investing more on the airport by improving the road infrastructure to the airport and raising a second terminal, it may turn out to be a futile exercise if nothing is to get re-started.”