Union Minister Anurag Thakur has made a strong case for the expansion of the Dharamshala airport in Himachal Pradesh to provide direct connectivity to the region. Thakur, along with Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh, flagged off the first Delhi-Dharamshala IndiGo flight on Sunday.
Thakur highlighted the current inconvenience faced by passengers travelling to Himachal Pradesh who have to go via Delhi and then board connecting flights as smaller airports in the state are unable to handle larger aircraft. He urged for a larger airport to be constructed to provide direct and seamless connectivity to the
region.
Scindia said that the Civil Aviation Ministry was already working on a two-phase expansion plan for the Dharamshala airport. The first phase would involve increasing the runway length from 1,376 metres to 1,900 metres to enable turboprop aircraft to carry out operations without load penalties. Currently, turboprop aircraft operating from Dharamshala airport are not allowed to take off with full capacity, leading to underutilization and higher airfares.
Scindia added that the second phase of the expansion plan would involve further lengthening of the runway to 3,110 metres to realise the vision of landing Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 at the airport. Thakur emphasised that the Dharamshala airport is a crucial hub for the state, connecting five districts and directly benefiting half of the population. With the commencement of daily flights to Dharamshala from Delhi by IndiGo, the airline’s number of daily flights has increased to 1795, making it the seventh-largest airline in the world in terms of departures.
