E-Paper
Starting today, Chandigarh airport closed for 20 days for runway upgrade
Second closure of year amid summer vacations puts additional burden of 4,000 travellers on rail, bus services, cab operators hike fares up to 20%.
With the Chandigarh International Airport closing for 20 days from Saturday for the runway upgrade, railway and bus services will have to bear the additional burden of around 4,000 travellers daily.
With summer vacations starting, the demand is likely to become manifold. The nearest civilian airports are Delhi and Amritsar — both around 250km away.
To meet the demand, the Northern Railways told the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday that one coach has been added to the afternoon Shatabdi.
The court was told that it will consider adding more coaches as and when required as for now enough seats are available.
However, going by the bookings for three Shatabdis plying between Chandigarh and Delhi, it is difficult to get a seat in the morning and evening Shatabdis this weekend.
Even if you get it, the ticket of a normal chair car is costing Rs 915 and for executive chair car it is Rs 1,305 with additional tatkal charges.
In fact, in the morning Shatabdi (12006), the waiting list is as high as 70 over the weekend. However from May 14, adequate seats are available with no waiting list.
Meanwhile, in the evening Shatabdi (12012), chair car seats are available on May 12 but there is a waiting list of 99 on May 13. From May 14 onwards, seats are available in normal chair car but a long waiting list is there in the executive chair car till May 19.
With 78 seats added to the afternoon Shatabdi, for now there is no waiting list till May 17. Each Shatabdi has 3,000 seats.
LIMITED OPTIONS
For people who are opting for a bus to reach Delhi, in order to board a flight from there, options remain limited.
Of 30 Haryana Roadways’ Volvo buses currently plying on the route, half end the journey at the interstate bus terminal there. Only, the remaining 15 provide direct access to the airport.
Punjab Roadways has only five Volvos on this route, with the capacity of not more than 50 passengers each.
Meanwhile, cab operators are set to make the most of this situation.
They have already spiked their fares by 15% to 20%.
At present, pick-and-drop facility to the Delhi airport from Chandigarh costs between Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,700, depending on the cab’s capacity.
However, now the rates have gone up to between Rs 3,000 and Rs 3,500 during the weekend.
The upgrade work at the airport is likely to be completed by this year-end. The runway’s length is being increased to enable operations of wide-bodied aircraft, that will enable carriers to connect the city with destinations in the US, Europe and Australia.
The airport handles nearly 30 commercial flights daily, including international flights to Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok. The city is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Jaipur and a few other cities in the domestic circuit.
Earlier, the airport was closed for two weeks in February.
