PM Modi will also inaugurate an International Buddhist conclave in the Parinirvana area.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India’s 29th international airport in Kushinagar on October 20, where Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and a 125-member delegation will also be present.
Notably, Kushinagar is the place where Gautam Buddha achieved Mahaparinirvana. PM Modi will also inaugurate an International Buddhist conclave at Parinirvana place.
The great inauguration ceremony, which is being seen as a major event in the Buddhist circuit to boost tourist inflow, will be attended by Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath and a host of dignitaries, including ambassadors of around 15 countries to India.
The airport will witness the arrival of its maiden international flight from Colombo with the president and a 125-member organization bringing him on board, including Buddhist monks and pilgrims on the occasion.
Six Buddhist sites across Uttar Pradesh and
With the opening of this airport, the inflow of international tourists, as well as outbound tourism, is likely to go up by 15-20 percent.
- The airport will offer a hassle-free movement to tourists to six Buddhist sites across Uttar Pradesh and in north Bihar- Kushinagar, Sarnath, Shravasti, Kesaria stupa, and Vaishali.
- Earlier, the entry point for the Buddhist tourists was Kolkata, Delhi, Gaya and later Varanasi, which are situated far away from one another.
Besides, due to lack of air connectivity, it was time taking and most tourists could not complete the circuit in one go. However, with the opening of the airport foreign tourists can complete their pilgrimage in considerably less time.
Spread over an area of 590 acres, the International airport boasts world-class facilities.
The eight-storied state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower built at the cost of Rs 17.5 crore, has become fully operational at the airport whereas the navigation system for safe landing and take-off of flights at the airport has also passed the trial strongly.
- Meanwhile, a large workforce is being trained to enhance tourists’ experience under the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India Tourist Facilitator Programme.
These collective efforts are expected to boost the tourism sector in the region and will generate direct and indirect employment for thousands of people.
Kushinagar International Airport
According to tourism industry experts, the Kushinagar International Airport will give a fillip to the development of Eastern UP with aviation, tourism, and hospitality industries set to boom.
According to the available figures, Kushinagar received 8.98 lakh, 9.3 lakh, 9.7 lakh, and 10.96 lakh tourists in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively, which dropped to 3.23 lakh tourists in 2020 due to the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
Similarly, Shravasti received 2.2 lakh, 2.58 lakh, 11.32 lakh, and 12.71 lakh in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively, which dipped to a mere 0.17 lakh in 2020.
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Source : News18
