Title: Need to declare Nagpur Airport as International Airport-Laid.
SHRI VILAS MUTTEMWAR (NAGPUR): Now time has come to make Nagpur Airport as an International airport because every year nearly 3,000 Haj Yatris visit from Vidarbha and adjoining districts of Madhya Pradesh to Makka & Jaddah. Majority of these Yatris are old and face various difficulties to get Visas and boarding from Mumbai’s Sahara Airport.
Every year these Yatris are being cheated and ditched in Mumbai by fake travel agents. Also frequent changes in International flight timings which create accommodation problem are faced by old Yatris and their relatives in Mumbai. To avoid harships to our senior citizens, steps should be taken to make necessary arrangements such as immigration, customs etc. to board from Nagpur instead of Mumbai.
After a long persuasion from the people of Vidarbha for the last two years, Nagpur airport is available for air cargo operation to uplift International cargo and the runway has already been extended to 10,800 feet and recarpetted for operations to meet the wide-bodied aircrafts’ demand. International air cargo charters are being operated without any problems from this runway.
The people here, after commissioning of cargo service are now eagerly waiting for international passenger service from Nagpur Airport. The amount of benefits that this service shall generate not only for the entire region of Vidarbha but adjoining many districts of Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh in numerous dimensions of industrial, commercial spheres such as tourism. Also, making Nagpur as an International passenger airport will help to divert the extra crowd and burden from the over-populated cities.
This right should not be denied to the people of this region due to want of air facilities. Government should respect the religious feelings of the senior citizens and agree to the proposal.