Home minister Rajnath Singh is all set to take security and tourism hand in hand to make inroads for boosting economy and development in the country. The new proposal in the works is to throw open remote airstrips in the country for tourism purposes. Top sources disclosed a move is afoot to make the non-operational airstrips active to enable civil operations. As a first step, the security aspect of the move has emerged as the prime concern of the home ministry. On Wednesday, the Union home ministry will hold consultations with the ministry of tourism, among other stakeholders, to take forward the new idea.
Many forgotten, abandoned or partially used airstrips exist in states like Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan, among others . Sources pointed out that the unutilised airstrips in places like Kanpur, Meerut or Faizabad can be developed as no-frills airports and at the same time it will go a long way in boosting tourist inflow and bring along with it development of the backward regions in several states.
Wednesday’s meet is likely to take stock of the tourist inflow to the places where the airstrips are located, the development and security related aspects and the kind of aircraft that can take operate from these strips,” an official said.
Officials in the security agencies said that the move will also allay their concerns of the airstrips being misused by anti-national elements or even terrorist elements.
While some of these non- functional airstrips are owned by Airports Authority of India, others are owned by state governments. Apart from the non- functional airstrips, there are several other airstrips which are only being used by politicians and corporates. The government is mulling asking states to hand over such airstrips.
It may be recalled that the move to develop small airports in remote areas to develop low cost domestic air travelling was also part of the BJP government’s poll manifesto in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.