Jammu, May 31 : Amid frequent closure of Srinagar-Jammu highway, the airfare to Srinagar has soared, thus leaving the passengers to lurch at large.

A landslide hit Srinagar-Jammu highway, the only road connecting Valley with rest of the States, the airlines waste no time to cash in on the situation to arbitrarily increase the airfares.

An unthinking peek at various travel portals indicated that Delhi to Srinagar airfares for next few days were touching almost Rs 21,000 per passenger while Jammu to Srinagar airfares for the same day were at Rs 17,000 which is highly expensive than the regular airfares.

Several people planning to travel from Jammu to Srinagar said the airlines are making “open loot”. Wasim Majnoon Mir, a Journalist, who is in Jammu said each travel portal was indicating fares between Jammu and Srinagar not less than Rs 13,000 for next 3 days.

“These airfares are much higher than the ones prior to rainfall. The government should have roped-in special additional flights in order to address the huge rush from Jammu and Delhi for Srinagar,” Mir said. (KNS)