New Delhi: Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh, built at a cost of ₹448 crore and inaugurated with great pomp by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2021, now stands largely abandoned — a gleaming monument to ambition that never took off.
Touted as the gateway to the global Buddhist tourism circuit and a catalyst for eastern Uttar Pradesh’s economy, the airport was designed to handle wide-body aircraft and attract direct flights from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Japan and other Buddhist nations. Modi himself called it a tribute to Lord Buddha and a new chapter of development for one of India’s poorest regions. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) projected 300,000 passengers a year by 2025.
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Reality has been cruel. The last scheduled commercial flight landed in November 2023. Since then, the terminal has seen almost no passengers. In the entire 2024-25 financial year, fewer than 300 people passed through — a 99.9% shortfall from forecasts. The vast parking bays meant for Boeing 747s now host only the occasional private charter or calibration flight. Weeds grow along the apron, dust coats the check-in counters, and the imposing terminal building echoes with emptiness. Annual maintenance still costs taxpayers ₹20–30 crore.
The collapse was predictable. Airlines quickly realised demand was negligible — most flights were departing with fewer than 60 passengers. Supporting infrastructure never materialised: the nearest proper highway remains a broken, potholed stretch more than 50 km away, decent hotels are virtually non-existent, and organised tourist circuits linking Kushinagar with Lumbini, Sarnath and Bodh Gaya were never seriously developed. A lingering land dispute over a handful of houses near the runway has even delayed installation of the instrument landing system, forcing the airport to operate only in daylight and good weather for years.
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Kushinagar is far from alone. Across India, dozens of new airports built under the UDAN regional connectivity scheme lie severely underused or completely dormant. Over 20 of the 93 airports incentivised under the programme are currently non-operational. Several in Uttar Pradesh itself — Aligarh, Moradabad, Shravasti, Chitrakoot, Azamgarh and others — have no scheduled flights at all. Nationally, more than half the routes awarded under UDAN either never started or were abandoned within three years. Billions in viability-gap funding have vanished with little to show.
Critics point to a pattern: Grand inaugurations timed for political mileage — often coinciding with religious or cultural events — followed by neglect once the cameras leave. Feasibility studies are thin or ignored, demand projections are inflated, and integration with road, rail, and tourism ecosystems is an afterthought. In Kushinagar’s case, many quietly note that Gorakhpur, just 45 km away, already has a busy airport serving over 1.5 million passengers annually and far better connectivity. Building a second international facility in such close proximity, in an area with neither significant population nor industrial base, has raised questions about electoral calculations more than economic logic.
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There are flickers of justification from official quarters: “These are long-term investments,” some argue, pointing to Jewar and Ayodhya airports that took years to gain traction. Recent upgrades have finally given Kushinagar all-weather capability, and there is talk of repositioning it as a cargo or VVIP hub. Yet such pivots feel like face-saving measures when the original vision — thousands of Buddhist pilgrims streaming in from East Asia — has evaporated.
The story of Kushinagar is no longer just about one sleepy airport. It has become a symbol of a wider malaise: billions spent on infrastructure that looks impressive in photographs and speeches but delivers little tangible benefit to ordinary citizens. While India’s overall aviation sector grows rapidly in major cities, dozens of smaller airports built at enormous public cost have turned into expensive white elephants. Farmers who lost land for these projects watch jets that never come, while basic roads, schools, and hospitals remain wanting.
In the end, Kushinagar’s silent runway is a stark reminder: Development that prioritises ribbon-cutting over rigorous planning is not development at all. It is theatre — and the bill, as always, is paid by the taxpayer.
