Upgraded Jammu Airport inaugurated

The upgraded passenger Terminal Building of Jammu Airport, Jammu was inaugurated by Ms Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir and P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Union Minister for Civil Aviation. Jayant Sinha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation; Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region, PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space; Dr. Nirmal Kumar Singh, Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir;  Kavinder Gupta, Speaker of J&K Legislative Assembly; Jugal Kishore Sharma, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and Shamsher Singh Manhas, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) along with Dr. Guruprasad Mohapatra, Chairman, Airports Authority of India were the other esteemed guests who attended the inauguration ceremony. Jammu is the gateway city for the State of Jammu & Kashmir and the winter capital of the State, is also popularly known as the ‘City of Temples.’Bestowed with a rich heritage and cultural legacy, Jammu has promising tourism potential. The city is famous for religious tourism and the holy shrine of ‘Mata Vaishno Devi’ is 46 kms. from the city. Jammu Airport belongs to the Indian Air Force, Ministry of Defence and AAI maintains a Civil Enclave for civil aircraft operations. During the year 2016-17, passenger traffic movement at Jammu Airport reached 1.16 million and the passenger growth rate has touched 29 per cent in the first quarter of 2017-18. To cope with the increasing passenger growth and demand, expansion & upgradation of existing Terminal Building of Jammu Airport has been completed. The area of the Terminal Building is expanded from 6700 sq. mtrs. to 14,500 sq. mtrs. with an upgraded peak hour handling capacity of 720 passengers at a time, an increase from the existing 360 peak hour passengers.