Goan tourists stranded in Srinagar due to sold out flights and high prices

Panaji: Over 50 Goan tourists who travelled to Kashmir for their summer holidays are stranded as return flights continue to remain either sold out or expensive. The passengers, holed up safely in Srinagar, are now counting on state govt to facilitate their return home.
“Flights are not available. Jammu is not accessible by road because of a landslide that occurred just days before the attack, and because of this, flights were already expensive and booked,” said Daxal Naik, the owner of Travel Bug Tours and Travels.
A group of 26 from Goa travelled with Travel Bug Tours and Travels, while another 32 travelled through GAC Holiday. Aside from this, a couple of other Goans also travelled independently to Pahalgam. All of them narrowly escaped the terror attack.
Though the military presence at tourist spots has increased significantly, many of the tourists remain shell-shocked and keen to return home instead of waiting for their return flights.
“The two of us planned this trip for one year, and we were saving up for this. But after one and a half days, we decided to return. With fear in your mind, how can you enjoy any place?” said Shama Lotlikar.
Lotlikar, along with her partner, Venkatesh, decided to pay the high flight fares so that they could return to Goa. With no flights available, they chose to fly a circuitous route from Srinagar to Mumbai, and from there to Bengaluru. They will stay in Bengaluru for two days before returning to Goa.
“It was really difficult to book a flight. Our family and Ahraz tried for four hours. Finally, I started booking random flights without checking where the flight was going. The flight tickets were very expensive. Only after booking the ticket did I realise that the flight is going to Bengaluru via Mumbai,” said Shama.
As the Lotlikars were booking the tickets, they saw fares jump from Rs 5,000 to Rs 18,000 and finally to Rs 40,000 per person.