Insufficient seats and service interruption: Armed police air express is facing difficulties. Exclusive

The Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) air express services are facing difficulties with people complaining about the lack of seats on key routes including Delhi-J&K.

The issue was raised along with other concerns regarding air express services on various routes at a recent meeting chaired by CRPF Director General Anish Dayal.

Based on the discussion, officials expressed regret over the limited capacity on the Srinagar-Jammu-Delhi route leading to lack of seats. Similarly, the Delhi-Kolkata-Aizwal route has ACS services only on Saturdays, which creates a restriction for passengers. Additionally, air express services from Dibrugarh to Guwahati to Delhi have been stopped, causing inconvenience to people commuting from difficult locations, prompting the matter to be reported to the Home Ministry for restoration of services.

Officials at the meeting also raised difficult issues on other routes. Officials said soldiers were facing difficulties on the Kolkata-Imphal-Kolkata route due to increased troop deployment in Manipur and it was proposed to extend the service from three days to five days to meet the demand.

A senior official told News18 that the air express service is facing challenges due to coordination and financial issues at various locations, affecting not just one force but multiple forces, sparking discussions at the highest levels of the ministry.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has approved the right of all personnel of the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces to travel on flights in Delhi-Srinagar, Srinagar-Delhi, Jammu-Srinagar and Srinagar-Jammu areas. The decision immediately benefits around 800,000 CAPF personnel, including police officers, police chiefs and ASIs, who were otherwise not eligible earlier. This includes duty journeys and leave journeys i.e. journeys home and back on leave from Jammu and Kashmir.

The facility complements CAPF’s existing air express services, which the Home Office has been steadily expanding to all departments to help people reduce travel time to and from their homes during furlough.

In Jammu and Kashmir, it may be recalled that CAPF jawan air express service has been approved for Jammu-Srinagar-Jammu region.

Subsequently, the service was extended in December 2017 to cover 1) Delhi-Jammu, 2) Jammu-Srinagar, 3) Srinagar-Jammu and 4) Jammu-Delhi. In December 2018, the number of flights increased further. In addition, the Indian Air Force provides air support as required.