LACK OF INFRASTRUCTURE AT SRINAGAR AIRPORT COSTS BOTH TIME AND MONEY!

I still remember the days of harsh winter in Kashmir and i got a plan to get back to my university, ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY after a long gap of shutdown due to covid_19. As usual i preferred Air route as compared to our National Highway due to my bad experience in past. I found it important to mention that the condition of Srinagar Jammu highway always forced me to avoid the route and find any other alternative due to its harsh and unpredictable conditions. I have once suffered a lot when i was traveling to Jammu. The landslides and terrible scenes always created a panic picture in my mind, and i start avoiding travelling from such a road due to continuous requests of my parent’s as well.

Belonging from middle class family now i start booking my air tickets from Srinagar International airport to Delhi with fluctuating fair according to season. Sometimes it was bitter to adjust due to family conditions, but somehow parents managed and i used to travel through Aeroplane.

Firstly, the bad experience of Srinagar international Airport was its only one runway which decides your time according to air traffic. Sometimes you got delayed with an hour or more. And that’s the worst experience i had of Airport. It’s not even occasionally but usually these things happened there and you have to come up with such a mind before. Srinagar international airport being equipped with Army personal is second factor of getting delayed to your destination. I’m writing it on my experience not in a hypothetical way.

I have experienced this when i was traveling to Delhi in December along my three more mates. My flight timing was 8:45 am and i came from a long distance of 30 kms and reached exactly on 7:00 am at the main outside gate of Airport where security personal used to check vehicles and other passengers luggage. Obeying the rules and regulations of the said Airport i got panic of losing my flight. There was a long que and traffic jam outside airport. This has been a main concern regarding this Airport that whether you have to drop or pick up anyone in and out of the airport you will be getting late due to this bad traffic jam and authority is taking no concern about it. Due to rising travellers it becomes hectic from Humhama junction to Airport main gate to reach out safely without any hindrance, but No!

Everything is going against the protocols and nobody is taking pain of such wastage of precious time of passengers. The que was as long as i have to wait outside the gate for almost 20 minutes, i called up an army personnel there and asked him for my flight he said, what can we do sir, how can i let you go in , there is already a que of Vehicles inside. Now we step down from our car and start pedestrian towards Airport. How miserable was that holding all luggages on your back despite of having my own vehicle. The luggage check-in and other formalities took almost 45 minutes despite of claiming my coming flight. Now we somehow tried to manage it and heads towards terminal.

Seeing again the que i broke the norms and asked the personal having our flight, he replied sir wait in the line these passengers are also from the same flight. I took the breath of peace ok sir, i replied. After 10 minutes i reached to the concerned counter with holding my ticket in my hand, the young man there said, sorry sir, boarding has started and we can’t take you in, Luggage check-in counter has closed. I argued with proof that sir according to your protocols we reached on time, you can check the CCTV footage sir. Despite of giving any valid reason he fled from counter. I start arguing continuously and heads towards the Airport authority. I wasn’t alone, we were almost 15 passengers with both male and female students and old aged person. The concerned person there firstly make us sure about getting our flight but later on said, sorry can’t do anything and yes “beta” buy another ticket now and head towards Delhi. It was really the most heart-wrenching moment for me to call my family about the same . I can feel that and only the one who belongs from such a background that being in your student life and coming across with such incidents is really painful for middle class boy. Others there managed to book next flights after arguing with Airlines, but everything went in vain. Somehow I managed to book another flight with different airline and reached Delhi.

It left me rolling into tears of how others might be going through. To tag something with the name international doesn’t mean it that passengers will not be able to get the facilities even of those domestic airports.

Srinagar international airport has always been a victim of lack of well infrastructure despite of knowing the rise in passengers. According to the report conducted on such issue by Greater Kashmir is worthy to mention here.

Speaking with Greater Kashmir, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Traffic (Rural), Manzoor Ahmad Mir said of late the vehicular traffic to the airport has increased manifold, thus causing the traffic jams. The officer said while number of Traffic Policemen at the junction near the airport to regulate vehicles have been increased but added that a “faster passage of traffic inside the airport finally depends on the security check at the drop gate ,”The job of the Traffic Police is to ensure regulation and traffic management. It is finally a matter of security checks that becomes a deciding factor on how fast the traffic moves inside the airport premises,” said Mir.

For last several years, officials of the Airports Authority of India ( AAI) have been claiming that the hyper-sensitive Srinagar Airport is proposed to get vehicle scanners, full body scanners and additional x-ray checking machines at the drop gate to make security checks more quicker. Infact last year, AAI in its list of airports across the country, where full body scanners were to be installed had mentioned Srinagar Airport as well.

However, when contacted, Director, AAI, Srinagar, Kuldeep Singh said there was no proposal of either full body scanners or additional x-ray machines at the drop gate as of now. “There is no such plan as of now (for full body scanners or vehicle scanners),” Singh said.

My main motive to write down the above story is not to have fantasy in reading it out. It is the experience which not only me but hundreds of students especially have faced and are facing during their travelling phase. We know Srinagar international airport is military based and the check-in is mandatory but higher authorities  should look for other alternative options for smooth vehicular traffic in and out of the airport. It didn’t only take our money into waste but also precious time which is the main wealth for a student. So i request Airport authority to please look into the same and ensure us to have safe and time consuming as well as respecting journey.

Faheem ul islam( Author, columnist ,poet) hails from Achan pulwama and is student at Aligarh Muslim University.