MP seeks night-landing facility at airport

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 19

The Member Parliament from Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, today requested the Civil Aviation Ministry for creating night-landing facility at Kushok Bakula Rimpochee (KBR) airport, Leh, to increase frequency of flights to the arid region.

According to Namgyal, it would also help in bringing down exorbitant airfare to and fro for passengers, particularly students from Ladakh.

The Ladakh MP, who met the Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss various issues pertaining to Union Territory of Ladakh, urged the minister for taking some drastic measures to control the exorbitant airfare to the region immediately.

Namgyal also requested for the expansion of Kargil Airport, operation of Civil Airlines at the Kargil Airport and construction of “No Frill Airport” at Padum in remote Zanskar sub-division of Kargil district.

Ladakh remains cut off from the rest of the country for almost six months in any calendar year due to closure of two vital national highways, 434-km-long Srinagar-Kargil-Leh and 474-km-long Manali-Leh following harsh winters and heavy snowfall.