NEW DELHI :About four months ahead of the state election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inaugurated Uttar Pradesh's Kushinagar International Airport, which is expected to give a boost to Buddhist tourism circuit initiative of the government.
At the inaugural event for the airport, Prime Minister Modi said that tourism in all its forms, whether for faith or for leisure, needs modern infrastructure complete with rail, road, airways, waterways, hotels, hospitals, internet connectivity, hygiene, sewage treatment and renewable energy ensuring a clean environment.
“Development of Kushinagar is one of the key priorities of the UP and central governments," Modi added.
Kushinagar, a town in eastern Uttar Pradesh, is nearly 50 kilometers from Gorakhpur and about 225 kilometers from Varanasi. The town is a popular tourist destination for Buddhists pilgrims from all over the world. Other destinations under the Buddhist tourism circuit includes Bodhgaya, Vaishali and Rajgir in Bihar, Sarnath (Varanasi), Shravasti and Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh.
Soon after the inauguration of the airport by the prime minister, no-frill carrier SpiceJet Ltd. said that the airline will operate direct flights between New Delhi and Kushinagar from 26 November.
"The airline will be connecting Kushinagar with two more key metros – Mumbai and Kolkata – starting 18th December, 2021," it said.
SpiceJet’s flights on the Delhi-Kushinagar-Delhi sector will operate four-times-a-week on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, it added.
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