Tag Archives: Amritsar

Canadian MPs request for direct flights to Amritsar

Given the demographic dominance of Sikhs and Punjabis in Canada, Conservative MPs have called upon the country’s flag carrier to establish direct flights between their country and Punjab state.

In a letter addressed to Air Canada, 5 Canadian MPs called for direct flights between Canada and Amritsar to bolster tourism and empower families to stay connected.

“As Canadian MPs representing vast and diverse communities, we write to highlight the significant economic and social value in establishing direct flights between Canada and the state of Punjab,” the MPs wrote..

According to estimates, as many as five lakh passengers travel annually from India to Toronto alone, the majority of them Punjabis.

The MPs stated that “direct flights between Canada and Amritsar would symbiotically bolster tourism, trade and empower families to stay connected”.

There are currently no direct flights between Canada to Amritsar, India, requiring travellers to make multiple stops along, making the journey “lengthy and arduous”.

Canada recently announced an expanded air transport deal with India, allowing designated airlines to operate an unlimited number of flights between the two countries.

But the pact gives Canadian airlines access to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, excluding Amritsar, despite demands from passengers from both sides.

There are approximately 950,000 Punjabis in Canada, accounting for roughly 2.6 per cent of the country’s population, as per the 2021 census.

Many of these families have direct ties to family, friends and businesses in Punjab.

India is Canada’s fourth-largest international airport market, and hundreds of thousands of Punjabis travel to the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Over 14,000 Canadian citizens and permanent residents joined an official parliamentary petition this year calling for the creation of a direct flight from Canada to Amritsar, the letter noted.

The MPs said that the Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the significant need for flights from Amritsar directly to Canada. (Source Pune Mirror)

Experts urge to make Amritsar a medical tourism hub

People associated with medical profession want leaders to focus on devising a policy to harness Amritsar’s potential as a medical tourism hub, reports Neeraj Bagga for The Tribune.

A leading oral and maxillofacial surgeon, Dr MS Dewan, said neither any political party nor contestant has made it a part of their manifesto and roadmap for the futuristic development of the city.

Superb infrastructure is available in forms of international airport, four-lane road connectivity to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah joint check post, international bus stand and others and it is complemented by a large number of luxury, medium and small budget hotels.

“We now require pressing upon the Union Government to introduce more direct international flights from Central Asian and CIS countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and nations to the city. This will help to harness city’s massive potential to emerge as a medical tourism hub,” Dewan said.

Another medical professional, Dr Charu, said a strong positive aspect was that the city was already receiving NRI medical tourists from the US, the UK and Australia, besides patients from adjoining states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. This, she credited to the strong presence of a battery of multi-specialty and super-specialty hospitals equipped with advanced treatment facilities for eye-surgery, cardiology, IVF, dental surgery, hip and knee replacement.

Medical tourism in Amritsar is equally supported by a strong presence of medical colleges to nursing colleges, pharmacy colleges and research institutions. So it can surely work as a catalyst for economic makeover of the city, she added. She recalled that Navjot Singh Sidhu, in his capacity as the MP, had once announced that he would take up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs for providing medical visas on priority to Pakistani patients to visit Amritsar for treatment as this would allow them not only quality cure but an economical one too. (Source: The Tribune)