Bhuj Airport Inaugurated

The newly constructed domestic airport at Bhuj was inaugurated by deputy Prime Minister L K Advani on Thursday. He announced that the airport will be called the Krantiguru Pandit Shyamji Krishna Verma airport.

Constructed at a cost of Rs 19.91 crore by the Airports Authority of India, the airport will help in the development of earthquake-ravaged Kutch district, Advani said. He added that, with several concessions like tax holidays for new industries in the Kutch, the district will develop at a fast pace.

Advani commended the people of Kutch for making a fresh beginning after the earthquake.

About 14,000 persons had died in the district alone and crores of rupees worth of property was destroyed in the calamity.

 

He said that the Bhuj Civil Hospital, which too had collapsed completely in the January 2001 quake, will be inaugurated shortly by the Prime Minister.

Chief minister Narendra Modi, who proposed that the airport be named after Verma, said this is a gift to the people of Kutch district, who have shown courage and resilience even as the district experienced the worst calamities like earthquake and drought.