Punjab Minister calls for 'saving' Raja Sansi Airport status

Amritsar, Nov 4 (UNI) Even as cricketer-turned-politician and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu leads a protest march to the Raja Sansi Airport here tomorrow, Public Relations Minister Bikram Singh Majithia today made an appeal to all political parties to sink their mutual differences and come together to keep the holy city on the international tourist circuit by ''saving airport from going into oblivion''.

In an emotional appeal, Mr Majithia said time had come that all parties should rise above their party lines and petty politics to save the status of Raja Sansi Airport. He added that it was imperative for all of them to ensure that trade and economy of Punjab was not hit due to sudden stoppage of international flights to the Airport.

In a statement released here, he said retention of international flights was necessary to decongest Delhi Airport as 29 per cent of the airline passengers leaving or embarking there were from Punjab.

The Minister said international flights to Raja Sansi had facilitated the pilgrimage of a large number of pilgrims to the Golden Temple. The sudden stoppage of flights would then cause lot of inconvenience to lakhs of pilgrims, he said while pointing to the decision of Singapore Airlines and Jet Airways to discontinue their flights to Raja Sansi due to the land fee which was comparatively higher than other airports and poor passenger response.

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