Holy city Nashik and Economic
powerhouse Mumbai are about 180km apart. Both cities are very well connected by
road and rail. There have been many attempts to have regular air service
between both cities. However due to poor response air connectivity never ever
really took off.
Rail
What is a solution?
We try to understand deeper reasons
behind why Nashik-Mumbai air route failed consistently and how we can address
the issue.
Let us look at ways / options any
passenger have to travel between Nashik and Mumbai
Road:
Nashik and Mumbai are connected by
National Highway between Mumbai-Agra (NH3). Currently, NH3 is four lane highway
with moderate traffic. Even biggest bottleneck of Kasara Ghat is 4 lane solving
traffic jam problem. As a result, by car travel time between Nashik and Mumbai
is maximum 3.5 hours. Any normal driver can reach Dadar (Mumbai) from CBS
(Nashik) in 3 to 3.5 hours.
State Transport Bus takes 4 hours and
ticket price is about ₹250 - ₹300 while private operator charge between ₹200 to
₹500 depending on service. One can also catch shared taxi which charges about ₹500
per seat. Frequency of Bus and Taxi service is very high and available for 24
hours. As a result, majority of commuters traveling between Nashik and Mumbai
prefer Road.
Nashik has one railway station called
NasikRoad (NK) which is about 10km from city centre while main railway stations
in Mumbai are Dadar and CSTM. Both cities have train every half an hour at
least providing round the clock connectivity. Daily up down train called
Panchavati Express is highly popular among daily / frequent travelers.
Rail ticket for second class + plus
local transport could cost maximum ₹100 per person while AC Chair Car ticket is
about ₹300 - ₹350. Travel time by fast train is about 3 hours while slower
train takes maximum 4 hours. Hence point to point travel time for any passenger
between CBS and Dadar is not more than 5 hours.
As we can clearly see that under any circumstance,
Nashik-Mumbai journey can be comfortably completed in 4 hours pay spending
maximum ₹500 per head. Either by Road and Rail, it makes little difference.
Air
Air service from Nashik to Mumbai is
expected to begin in February 2016 as per announcement by Air India. Nashik airport
is located at Ozar which is 20km away from City Centre. For any passenger to
reach airport from any point in Nashik city it would take at least 30 mins. For
air traveler, Check In and Security Check can take about 30 mins and you have
to report 1 hour before schedule time of flight. Hence you spend at least 1 to
1:30 hours before aircraft starts flying.
Now air travel time Nashik and Mumbai
including take off, landing is about 45 mins while it would take at least 15
mins for you get out of airport. Which means 2:30 hours travel time from Ozar (Nashik)
airport to Santacruz (Mumbai) Airport. Also, it takes at least 30 mins by taxi
to reach Dadar if you are lucky with Mumbai traffic. So on any given day you cannot
reach in less than 3 hours if you opt for Air Route between Nashik and Mumbai.
Even if we assume air fare of ₹2,500
and local transport charges of ₹200 - ₹500; it can cost anywhere between ₹2,500
to ₹3,000 per passenger. While travel time is same as that of Road or
Rail. Secondly, frequency of flight is
one flight per day that too at early morning hours making it least convenient
option.
What we wrote is not any secret
formula which is not known to anyone with little common sense. Still, Nashik
got brutally murdered by policy makers by experimenting same Mumbai air route again
and again. This is happening for last 2 decades and one more failed experiment
would begin in February 2016 when 72-seater ATR would fly half empty from
Nashik to reach Mumbai.
What is a solution?
It is not that Nashik does not have potential
for regular air service. Nashik is Agricultural powerhouse of India and
regional hub for North Maharashtra. It is the city which attracts lakhs of devotees
every year from across India and Shirdi is hardly 2 hour drive from Nashik.
Decision makers must understand what the need of Nashik is instead of forcing
their whims.
Only way Nashik can be connected with
Mumbai is via hopping flight such as Delhi-Nashik-Mumbai, Nagpur-Nashik-Mumbai,
Jaipur-Nashik-Mumbai etc. Also while starting air service, effort should be to
improve connectivity from Nashik. Mumbai is already very well connected, so why
not explore routes for cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Goa
etc.
Little common sense and approach without
an ego can help Nashik to get much awaited, long due and highly deserving regular
air service. We have state of art airport with cost of ₹80cr and waiting for
operations since last 18 months. We have potential to become excellent IT/ITES
emerging hub due to factors such as climate, educational infrastructure, quality
of life, rapidly growing city, attractive tourist destination and affluent
population.
Need of the day is approach with
apathy towards Nashik which can help it to get regular presence on air route
map of India and soon World. Also Nashik could help to decongest by carrying
come amount of traffic load on already crunch Mumbai airport. There are
solutions and ways, we need to find then and act with practical and rational mind.
Else, We can only see this as
prominent way to travel between Nashik and Mumbai
You may also read Air service from Nashik Airport to start in early 2016
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