A helipad was built at Serli near Katra town in 1998 for the use of VIPs visiting the shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi. This helipad is along Katra-Reasi National Highway. In 2002, it began to be used for commercial purposes to carry pilgrims to Sanji Chat close to the holy cave of the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine. With commercialization of the flight, frequency of chopper sorties increased manifold and with that began the curse of noise pollution in Katra town. People began to raise voice against noise pollution and demanded that the helipad be shifted from the populated locale of Serli to a less populated site away from Katra town.
This according to Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board was a serious issue as the Director General of Civil Aviation had also endorsed the idea of shifting the helipad to another place so as to relieve the town of Katra from noise pollution. A new site along the Katra-Reasi Highway was also identified but acquisition of land for the helipad has not matured for last three years despite the fact that the DGCA has approved the site. It is unclear why the State Government is not taking this matter seriously knowing that last year there had been a tragic air crash of a helicopter.
We would like to emphasize on the State Government and Shrine Board to take serious view of extraordinary noise pollution at Katra town, where people come in thousands every day to go up the hill for visiting the holy shrine.
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