Pleasures of simple living

Today travelling has become an ordeal. Earlier, taking a flight meant so much excitement. But now, it means more of waiting in long queues, security checks, body scans, and this constant feeling of being on the alert.

Well, the Govt of India is planning to change at least some of that. It wants to bring back the pleasure of traveling across airports, taking us back to the time when it meant lesser security checks and the best part – a walk across the tarmac to your plane. With plans afoot to have some 50 new small airports across the country, in some 11 states, the Airport Authority of India plans to have airports which will have barbed wire for boundary instead of walls, a shorter check-in time so that size of lounges can remains small, people checking the baggage and not machines. There will be a walk on the tarmac, to board or get off the plane instead of buses plying around. There will be no food kiosks but thankfully there will be clean toilets and pure drinking water. The airport building will small and lean, no major glass structures or airconditioners and the aim is to keep the cost of one single airport at Rs.50 crore.

This is a great idea and will help connect the entire country will remote, smaller places. There should be no cost compromise on security and use of CCTV should be made mandatory. This is a workable option and hopefully, at least while flying to some small towns, we can relive our olden days – the pleasure of simple living. These 50 new airports are planned in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.