Valentine's day is going to be special for the Kashmir valley. A new International airport is set to be inaugurated in Srinagar on February 14.

The airport will be inaugurated by Congress President Sonia Gandhi on the same day. Sprawling over an area of 200,000 square feet with a new terminal building comprising of six terminals, the new airport costs 11,000 million rupees.



The Srinagar's International airport can handle 500 domestic and 450 International passengers at any point of time and boasts of being the first airport in India to feature an inline baggage X-ray system.

As declare by the state tourism, several airlines would operated from Srinagar to the Middle East and South East Asia. "So far, Air India is going to operate from Dubai to Srinagar directly. In near future, Kingfisher and other airlines are going to operate from South East and Middle East," said Farooq Ahmad Shah, Director, Department of Tourism, Jammu and Kashmir.

The new airport is well received by the people of Kashmir as a majority of them are directly or indirectly associated with the tourism industry. This is going to boost the tourism of the state. "The people are very happy about the international airport. The people are going to benefit.  The tourists who come from abroad will directly reach Jammu and Kashmir. Earlier the tourists could not reach Jammu and Kashmir directly. But, now they can do that," said Fayaz Ahmed, a resident.

As Srinagar hits on to the International aviation map, the people are excited to have international tourists that will provide new job opportunities for the youth. AGENCIES