Chandigarh-Delhi airfare skyrockets amid agitating farmers’ led Punjab bandh

In the wake of the Punjab bandh call by protesting farmers, airfares on the Chandigarh-Delhi route skyrocketed, with a routine ₹ 3,000 ticket sold for ₹ 19,000.

Various Punjab farmer unions had, pertinently, called a statewide shutdown on December 30 to press the government to accept their demands.

Most airlines did not show the booking prices for flights online, with tickets available only at the airport or through their dedicated websites.

“Depending on the timing of the day, tickets are available at a premium. The daytime tickets are expensive but the evening tickets are cheaper," was quoted as saying.

Those commuting by road in Mohali faced immense inconveniences as farmers blocked roads and rail tracks and even staged a sit-in outside shops and petrol pumps.

The protesters parked tractor-trailers in the middle of the roads and spent time around bonfires in foggy weather even as loudspeakers blared messages seeking support for their cause.

The protesters offered tea and biscuits to the commuters.

Visitors and patients traveling to the PGI from far-off places were stuck a few kilometers away from their destination at the Baroudi toll plaza near New Chandigarh where farmer union members allowed passage to them and ambulances only after seeing OPD cards or after confirming it from the PGI departments.

An airport road was also blocked under the railway overbridge near the IISER light-point. The protesters, with loudspeakers atop their vehicles accompanied by tractor-trailers, thanked shopkeepers in Phase 3B2 for keeping their establishments closed.

Vehicles mostly remained off the road in the Kharar area as farmer union members patrolled the roads. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lakhowal) leader Jaspal Singh Niamian was quoted as saying, "Everybody is cooperating. We are determined to make the bandh a success.”