Uttar Pradesh’s third international airport — after Lucknow and Varanasi — will be inaugurated in Kushinagar later this month. The inauguration will be most likely done at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 20.
Union Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the Buddhist Tourism Conference in Varanasi, said that the airport is being opened keeping the demand of the sector in mind, particularly the wide interest of nationals from South East Asia to visit Buddhist sites in the region. A special delegation from Sri Lanka, led by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, will arrive via a chartered flight to take part in the inauguration event. Singh said representatives from 13 countries with a large Buddhist population — including Thailand, Myanmar, Bhutan, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Nepal — will also be invited for the ceremony. Since the airport will mainly service the Buddhist Tourism circuit, a special invite has been sent to 100 Buddhist monks for the inauguration event.