Sometime back there was a heated debate about naming of the newly upgraded Srinagar Airport. Some wanted it named as Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport. Others would have liked it to be named after some political leaders and so on. The row could not be settled and the concerned authorities let it remain as the Srinagar International Airport. Even that is not so bad. The city of Srinagar (The City of the Sun) is almost 2,000 years old. This itself gives it a unique character. However, at present one is not concerned with the name. A rose is a rose by whatever name you call it! The concern is about the substance. The solitary international flight from Srinagar to Dubai remains suspended from January this year. Whether we give the airport local or national or international name, it is at present a misnomer, an “International” Airport without any International flights. A practical joke played on poor Kashmiris whom everyone takes for a ride! The irony of the situation is that all those people who had been in the forefront for the up gradation of the airport and starting of international flights have totally forgotten about it. No one has even commented about the high handedness of the Civil Aviation authorities. This is because any body can take any liberty in Kashmir. There is no accountability. Kashmir’s misfortune is that the mainstream leaders will only talk about the streams which flow to or through their own homes. For the freedom fighters all developmental talk is taboo. If they take up the urgent issues pinching the common people, they will lose their focus on the most illusive “Azadi”.

The story of Kashmir’s International Airport is a long one. It all started in early seventies when late Sheikh Abdullah took over the reins of power as the new Chief Minister in pursuance to Indira-Sheikh Accord. He had two ambitions. One was to set up an International Convention Centre and the other was to have an International Airport linked to all the global air routes. The Convention Centre with a five star Hotel was set up in his own life time but he could not realise the dream of seeing Srinagar Airport getting converted into an International one. Right from 1975 the proposal of upgrading Srinagar Airport to International level had been under the consideration of Central Government. However, as usual the Government had been hesitant in doing the needful for some unknown reasons. In the meantime, a number of smaller airports including the Amritsar airport were declared International and direct flights were started from there to Europe and many other destinations. Almost every politician within the state as well as outside claims tourism to be the backbone of Kashmir’s economy but when it comes to developing infrastructure, all of them seem to get confused or paralysed. It is meaningless to talk of Kashmir as a world class tourism destination without direct connectivity to International Air Routes. Even at the peak of tourism arrivals to Kashmir the foreign traffic did not exceed 5% of the arrivals to India because of the add-on domestic fare from Delhi. Because of its location, Kashmir is ideally situated as an attractive tourism destination for short haul markets of Middle East, Central Asia, and South East Asia. It can also be a very convenient stopover for long haul flights from Europe to Far East and vice versa.

However, the dream of converting Kashmir into an International Hub for tourism and trade can only be realised once there is global air connectivity. In fact, realisation of this goal itself can be the ultimate solution to the vexed Kashmir problem. The dream of becoming an international destination was realised a couple of years back when the Srinagar Airport was declared to be International. In the middle of the winter, the Srinagar Airport was all bedecked to receive an International flight from Dubai by no less a person than the Congress president Sonia Gandhi. It was trumpeted around not only as a milestone for Kashmir Tourism but in fact a revolutionary step in ending decades old isolation of Kashmir from the outside world. The solitary flight per week started was not really to promote business and tourist traffic. The service started was not a tourist friendly one but a cheap flight for the labour class. Air India had started Air India Express to cater for the large labour force working in the Gulf Region. The normal tourist flights having the first, the business class and other configurations were not getting enough loads some years back. In order to provide cheaper flights in a very cramped setting for the large labour force working in the Gulf, the Air India floated a subsidiary company called the Air India Express. These flights are known in the Gulf as “Malabari Flights” as they carry the labour class which mostly comprises of people from the Malabar Region. The people who had taken the flight observed that it was very tiresome, cramped, unduly long, and sometimes quite annoying. Now this flight too has been stopped.

The fact that the state government has not agitated for the stoppage of the flight makes one presume that they have been consulted for its stoppage. Ultimately, as usual it may be the “Security Reasons” or the “National Interest” which may have prompted the closure of the solitary flight. Dubai is supposed to be a conduit for hawala transactions and the recent Mossad action has shown that it can be a hub for some international terrorist activity. However, the strong action initiated by the Dubai Government for the Mossad incident shows that these people will not tolerate any illegal activity especially connected with terrorism from any quarter. This should make Dubai a safe destination to operate from Kashmir. Moreover, Dubai is not the only destination to which flights from Srinagar could be operated. We have numerous destinations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the South East Asia to which flights can be operated without any security apprehensions. In fact, two most popular flights could be to Jeddah and Koolab in Tajikistan. Umra flight to Jeddah would have the maximum load. Similarly, Koolab flight to the mausoleum of Shah-i-Hamadan would also go full from Kashmir! Given all these possibilities one fails to understand why both the central and the state governments are not promoting this important confidence building measure? There is still time to take charge of this project and have the Srinagar Airport made fully functional as an International Airport. Otherwise one would be forced to conclude that the whole show was a practical joke played on the Kashmiris!