Nobody availing facility for Marwah, Warwan areas
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, July 31: The much-talked about Kishtwar-Jammu chopper service has turned out to be damp squib mainly because of high cost of tickets and unwarranted conditions, which have been discouraging the people from availing the service. Moreover, such a service for Marwah and Warwan areas of Kishtwar district has remained non-starter despite lapse of nearly four months as no preliminary exercise was conducted before taking decision in this regard.
Following the foot-steps of the previous regimes in Jammu and Kashmir the PDP-BJP Coalition Government soon after taking over the reign of the State started showing dreams to the people of Kishtwar that air connectivity to this mountainous district would be provided on most subsidized rates.
This once again generated ray of hope among the people about avoiding hassle of travelling by road to Jammu especially during the emergent situations. However, it took more than two years to the present dispensation to arrive at any decision and finally on April 10 this year the chopper service between Kishtwar and Jammu was started after entering into an agreement with Pawan Hans Pvt Limited.
Minister of State for R&B and Revenue, Sunil Sharma, who is also MLA from Kishtwar, travelled from Jammu to Kishtwar in the inaugural sortie and described the start of chopper service as a major people friendly decision of the present dispensation.
At the inaugural function, Deputy Commissioner Kishtwar, Ghulam Nabi Balwan said that Pawan Hans Pvt Limited has demanded Rs one lakh as fare out of which 80% would be borne by the Government as subsidy and Rs 4000 will have to be paid by the passengers from Kishtwar to Jammu and vice-versa. He further informed that the fare for Marwah and Warwan, the remotest corners of the district, has been fixed at Rs 2500 and Rs 3000 respectively.
However, within a period of three and half months the chopper service has turned out to be damp squib and during the past 10-15 days no sortie either from Jammu to Kishtwar or from Kishtwar to Jammu has been operated by Pawan Hans Pvt Limited, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
“People are not coming forward to avail the service anymore because they are considering Rs 4000 one side fare as very high. Moreover, there are certain conditions which are discouraging the people from travelling by air”, sources said, adding “initially there was a condition that chopper service would be operated only when at least 10 passengers would be available but when this stipulation started playing spoilsport, the Kishtwar district administration in consultation with Pawan Hans Pvt Limited reduced the mandatory number of passengers to 8”.
But even after this step people are not ready to avail the service as on one side the fare is higher than the expectations of common masses and on the other side Pawan Hans Pvt Limited is reluctant to operate service till at least eight passengers are available. “There are numerous occasions when five persons approached the nodal officers either in Kishtwar or Jammu to avail the chopper service but at the last moment they were conveyed that for want of three more passengers sortie cannot be operated”, sources informed.
“The intensity of difficulties being faced by the people because of this condition can be gauged from the fact that one person from Kishtwar had to pay fare of eight passengers to shift his ailing father to Jammu”, sources further informed.
Not only the Kishtwar-Jammu chopper service has turned out to be damp squib within few months of its start even chopper service for Marwah and Warwan areas has remained non-starter mainly because of unaffordable fare, sources said, adding “all this indicates that no preliminary exercise was conducted to ascertain the feasibility of service at such a fare”.
“The lack of preliminary exercise can further be gauged from the fact that there is no proper helipad at Kishtwar and chopper was landing and taking off from vacant field available near SSP office adjacent to the helipad of Army”, they said, adding “till date Army has not given No Objection Certificate for use of its helipad for civilian operations”.
“It seems that certain politicians were in hurry in launching the service to convey to the people that they were really interested in translating their promise into reality”, sources said, adding “had a detailed exercise been conducted the service would have not turned to be damp squib within a short span of time”.
When contacted, District Development Commissioner Kishtwar Ghulam Nabi Balwan confirmed that condition vis-à-vis availability of minimum eight passengers at one time was the main reason behind non-operation of chopper service. He also admitted that people were also considering Rs 4000 one side fare as high.
“The Divisional Commissioner Jammu has been approached for revisiting the agreement with Pawan Hans Private Limited so that solution is found to the concerns of the people”, a concerned officer said on the condition of anonymity. “This service would be of immense use provided issues relating to minimum number of passengers and fare are resolved”, the officer added.
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