Major repair work on the runways of two domestic airports of J&K which was scheduled to be completed in the month August remains delayed due to the prevailing uncertainty followed by abrogation of special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Authorities remained tight- lipped on the issue as to why there was a delay in repair work on the run ways at Srinagar and Jammu airports with some citing the security scenario and non-availability of work force.
Official sources said that repair work was announced just before few weeks of stripping the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir with the suspension. “Due to the delay in run way repair, flight schedule was also changed,” sources said.
Sources in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) said: “The repairing work was scheduled to be conducted in the month of August but the same was delayed because of the situation that emerged right after the revocation of Article 370.”
He said that with the passage of time, things will resume back to normal and the repair work will be executed at the right time when the situation will get back to normal in both of the regions. He further said that, “The sudden announcement on stripping the special status of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir was the main reason of delay in the project.”
Irfan Ahmad (name changed), an employee at Srinagar airport said, “The repair work was much needed and the cause of delay is yet to be known, as the repair of runways was demanded by the most of the airliners operating in valley.”
He said that the repairing was to be done on the runway and a circular was announced by the competent authorities regarding the changes in flights for a period of about two weeks. He further added that, “We are optimistic about the timely execution of all the pending tasks that are supposed to be done at our domestic airport based in Srinagar, which was delayed due to unavoidable reasons.” (kno)