Dharamsala airport, the best rain-shelter in the state

By
Varun
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16

By: Mohit Behl

Dharamsala: It would not be wrong to call the Dharamsala airport building at Gaggal a rain-shelter as it hardly shows any signs of being an airport. So it’s hardly surprising to find villagers squatting around to rest and chat a bit after working in the fields around. No wonder, no one is complaining – not the villagers at least – as it’s hardly considered an airport.

For those unfortunate ones who land up here there’s no visitor’s lounge, not even chairs for people coming to see off /receive their relatives/friends. Drinking water is available at such a distance that if one decides to go after it, it’s not sure he or she will find the way back. And the passengers who fly from here and have to wait, also suffer the torture as there is no air conditioning system. The private cafeteria (allegedly owner by a MLA) doesn’t have anything much to offer; there is no tourist help counter, nothing to kill time (as usually flights are delayed or cancelled), no calling booth, and so on.

As far as security is concerned, the Himachal Pradesh police personnel deployed at the airport watch helplessly as supporters of VIPs from this region storm their way inside the arrival departure lounge and also sneak into VIP room without a mandatory security check. The air traffic control building is unmanned, meaning anybody can sneak in anytime and take hostage the whole administrative block.

Almost all airports in India have been handed over to CISF for security, except for this one, just because of our government is unwilling to pursue this matter.

Lastly, there is only one airline flying from here -Kingfisher Red. As discussed in one of the previous articles, people flying from here have to shell exorbitantly as ticket prices are as high as Rs 9,800 for the Delhi-Dharamsala flight, whereas the tickets from Pathankot and Ludhiana for are available for as low as Rs 2,100 with a maximum limit of 4,500.

All these factors point to one thing that our politicians lack will to do anything beneficial for the state. While Punjab was able to force Air India to launch air service from Ludhiana to Delhi at such a short notice, within months of expansion of the airport, if we see the case of Dharamsala airport, the state carrier, after stopping operations from here, has still been making test flights for two years. Even MDLR was operating from here but left, while Go Air & Spice expressed willingness but did not turn up.

Under these circumstances, it is not hard to foresee the future of tourism industry in the state.

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Varun

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16 COMMENTS

  3. One Simple Question Why are you Quoting Kangra Airport wrongly as Dharmshala Airport…you should not post it wrongly……

    • dear mr. dinesh koundal, you are wrong this is not kangra airport , its located in gaggal which is not kangra. If you check the international airport codes worldwide the airport code is "DHM" which is nick for dharamsala , ok go and try booking a ticket from kangra to delhi & back & i will sponsor your ticket for free

      the post is CORRECT !!

  4. One Simple Question Why are you Quoting Kangra Airport wrongly as Dharmshala Airport…you should not post it wrongly……

    • dear mr. dinesh koundal, you are wrong this is not kangra airport , its located in gaggal which is not kangra. If you check the international airport codes worldwide the airport code is "DHM" which is nick for dharamsala , ok go and try booking a ticket from kangra to delhi & back & i will sponsor your ticket for free

      the post is CORRECT !!

  5. Due to negligible frequency of flights Gagal and Shimla airport is nothing but worth to rain-shelter. These white Elephants are gutting public hard earned money being charged from all of us in form of varieties of taxes. To provide subsidized services to high class people through these Airports government never care to burden 'Aam Adami' by varieties of taxes. My Point is that our airports runs huge loss as they could not be termed the commercial organizations but Behl has raised very pertinent issue by exploring this points in public interest. Lets hope those responsible would learn something form it.

  6. Due to negligible frequency of flights Gagal and Shimla airport is nothing but worth to rain-shelter. These white Elephants are gutting public hard earned money being charged from all of us in form of varieties of taxes. To provide subsidized services to high class people through these Airports government never care to burden 'Aam Adami' by varieties of taxes. My Point is that our airports runs huge loss as they could not be termed the commercial organizations but Behl has raised very pertinent issue by exploring this points in public interest. Lets hope those responsible would learn something form it.

    • actually MR. MOHIT'S answer was also in retaliation , bcos what did he meant by saying "Why are you Quoting Kangra Airport wrongly as Dharmshala Airport…you should not post it wrongly" MR. AMAR SINGH !!! AND MOREOVER WHAT CAN BE DONE MR. DINESH HAS ALREADY BOUGHT A TICKET FOR HIMSELF FROM KANGRA AIRPORT. THANKS NO BITTER COMMENTS FROM NOW ON

    • actually MR. MOHIT'S answer was also in retaliation , bcos what did he meant by saying "Why are you Quoting Kangra Airport wrongly as Dharmshala Airport…you should not post it wrongly" MR. AMAR SINGH !!! AND MOREOVER WHAT CAN BE DONE MR. DINESH HAS ALREADY BOUGHT A TICKET FOR HIMSELF FROM KANGRA AIRPORT. THANKS NO BITTER COMMENTS FROM NOW ON

  9. The comments are becoming bitter! Could it not be avoided? Of course, the reply of the writer of the post was not in good taste, hence the retaliation by Mr. Dinesh.

  10. The comments are becoming bitter! Could it not be avoided? Of course, the reply of the writer of the post was not in good taste, hence the retaliation by Mr. Dinesh.

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