Will Shimla get a bigger airport at Kandaghat

Shimla :A team of experts of the Airport Authority of India(AAI) has just taken a look at the hills near the popular tourist resort of Shimla in Himachal Pradesh to develop a bigger airport .

Official sources said the AAI experts surveyed a place near Kandaghat some 30 km from Shimla on the Shimla-Kalka highway .

The site surveyed at Kandhaghat  if approved there is a possibility of building a much bigger runway here so that bigger passenger aircraft can land and connect Shimla and other nearby places .

Sources said the experts will submit their technical , safety and economical feasibility report within later this month .

Over 1100 bighas of land is available at Kandagat’s proposed airport site and bulk of this is government land, officials say .

Shimla’s existing airport at Jubbarhatti has a 3900 feet long runway and only small passenger aircraft can land here. Also there is very little scope of increasing its length.

The AAI experts team also visited the Kullu valley and surveyed the existing Kullu airport site and explored possibilities of extending the runway here . Currently the Kullu airport is only 4100 feet long .

There are two ways to extend the runway here , either by diverting the Beas river or by building a bridge over the river.
There are currently only three small airports in Himachal Pradesh at Shimla , Kullu and Kangra .

The state government has been exploring possibilities of bigger airports so that like neighbouring Srinagar’s airport in Jammu & Kashmir much bigger aircraft can also land in Himachal and further boost high-end tourism .