Ahmedabad draws away passengers from Rajkot,Bhavnagar airports

Air cargo movement was also not encouraging in the corresponding period. Only 26 tonnes were loaded in 2007-08 against 33 tonnes in 2006-07. The unloading was an unimpressive five tonnes in 2007-08,which was 11 tonnes the year before that.

At Rajkot,aircraft departures went down from 2,708 in 2006-07 to 2,509 in 2007-08. Cargo movement suffered more here with loading of 449 tonnes in 2007-08; it was 660 tonnes in the year before that. Unloading also fell from 330 tonnes to 287 tonnes in the corresponding period. The number of embarking passengers declined from 80,590 in 2006-07 to 75,984 in 2007-08. Only 77,095 passengers disembarked in 2007-08; in 2006-07,the figure was 82,935,according to the report.

Senior Congress leader and Bhavnagar native Shaktisinh Gohil says the introduction of the Bhavnagar-Bandra

Terminus has drawn away a major chunk of Mumbai bound traffic from the city,which has impacted the demand for air travel. Gohil says no new industries have come up in and around Bhavnagar due to the lack of tangible investment besides the slump in the ship-breaking business at Alang,which has impacted the steel rolling industry.

Rajya Sabha member Vijay Rupani says that Rajkot has suffered low air traffic because of the absence of air connectivity with other big cities. Rajkot is connected only with Mumbai. “Major towns like Jamnagar,Kandla and Bhavnagar have a direct link with Mumbai,” Rupani said.

The four-laning of Ahmedabad-Rajkot national highway and luxury bus services that cover the distance between the two cities in under four hours has muted protests over low flight frequency. It may be noted that politicians across party lines in the region have made indirect but sizeable investments in road travel from Saurashtra to Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Also,there is excellent rail connectivity between Saurashtra and South India as well as eastern parts of the country.