U'khand CM Dhami inaugurates terminal building Phase-2 at Jolly Grant Airport

DEHRADUN: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Wednesday inaugurated the newly constructed terminal building Phase-2 at Jolly Grant Airport in Dehradun.

On this occasion, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia was connected through virtual medium. In the second phase, the terminal of Jolly Grant Airport was expanded by 14 thousand square meters.

Now the total expansion of the airport terminal has been done in 42 thousand square meters. The Jolly Grant Airport terminal is being built in two phases at a cost of Rs 486 crore.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami expressed his gratitude to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and said that under his leadership, work is being done at a rapid pace in the field of civil aviation.

The Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to the Union Civil Aviation Minister for starting the process of Pithoragarh-Hindon air service on his request and starting the operation of helicopter for emergency medical service from Uttarakhand.

He said that at present the Indian civil aviation industry ranks third in domestic traffic after America and China, for this he congratulated the Civil Aviation Minister.

He said that air services have expanded rapidly under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the last few years, air travel has become very popular among the people due to it being a cheap, fast and reliable means of transportation. This has been possible only because of the long-term thinking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Chief Minister said that the Civil Aviation Department of the state is making efforts to provide cheap air services to the people from outside the state as per the Indian culture and tradition, following the principle of 'Atithi Devo Bhava'.

Due to this, on one hand the state is getting more revenue, while on the other hand easy and cheap air service is being made available to the common people.

Under the "Ude Bharat Ka Har Nagrik" scheme of the Government of India, better air service is being provided in various remote areas of the state. Presently, under this scheme, 13 heliports are being constructed in Sahastradhara, Chinyalisaur, Gauchar, Haldwani, Nainital, Almora, New Tehri, Srinagar, Mussoorie, Joshimath, Dharchula, Haridwar.

Uttarakhand is an important state from religious and tourism point of view. It is the effort of the state government to provide all kinds of facilities to the devotees and tourists to travel in the state. Air services can play an important role in this.

The Chief Minister said that continuous efforts are being made to make Jolly Grant Airport of international standard. Along with this, OLS survey has also been done by the Airport Authority of India to develop Pantnagar Airport as an international airport. Only last month, air service was started between Jolly Grant and Pithoragarh.

"Heli service was started from Jolly Grant Airport between Dehradun-Almora-Pithoragarh, we plan to regularize it also. We are also working on including small aircraft services from Chinyalisaur and Gauchar in the near future, a request is being made to the Government of India for this," Dhami said.

A few months ago, the Prime Minister had visited Adi Kailash and Jageshwar Dham, after that the number of tourists in Adi Kailash and Jageshwar Dham is increasing rapidly. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is giving a new identity to the tourist places of Uttarakhand in the country and abroad, the Chief Minister said.

The Chief Minister said that in order to increase the air service within the state, apart from the Regional Air Connectivity Scheme, other heliports will also be constructed by the State Government in Gaujiana (Ghansali), Gairsain (Chamoli), Deghat-Sealdhe (Almora), Jakhol and Joshiada (Uttarakashi). Along with this, Joy Ride Service and Himalayan Darshan Service to visit various tourist centers of the state are also provided.

With the commencement of these services, tourism in the state will get a further boost.