Surat: Two months ago Surti group 'We want a working airport at Surat' on Facebook got immense support of more than 10,000 members from the city and abroad. Now, the movement for a fully operational airport is all set to take to the streets of the diamond city. Industrialists and traders from the diamond and textile sectors and trade and industry associations have joined hands to start an agitation from July 29.

Surat Diamond Association (SDA), apex body of diamond manufacturers and traders, has announced a day's bandh on July 29 in the diamond markets of Varachha and Mahidharpura, safe deposit vaults and diamond manufacturing units to press for domestic and international air connectivity.

"The diamond traders and manufacturers will observe a day's bandh in a show of strength and unity for a working airport in Surat on July 29," said SDA president Dinesh Navadia.

"Surtis are facing injustice for the past many years. We are not going to endure this for long," Navadia added.

Meanwhile, a delegation of industry leaders from textile, diamond, chemical and Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry ( is visiting New Delhi on July 29 to meet the officials of Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Union ministry of civil aviation on the air connectivity issue.

Sources said hundreds of people are expected to converge on Surat airport on July 29 when the industry leaders will board the Indian airline flight to New Delhi.

Devkishan Manghani, president of Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA), who is taking about 10 industry leaders to New Delhi, told TOI "We are going to New Delhi to give a final ultimatum to the government to either give more flights to the city or close down the airport forever. Cities like Srinagar, Nagpur, Guwahati and Coimbatore have more than six daily flights and we have only one."

Deccan Charters Limited's (DCL) case is a classic example of neglect of Surat. The private airliner was scheduled to start its intra-state flight services connecting Surat and Ahmedabad with important destinations in the state. But, the intra-state air connectivity from Surat and Ahmedabad still hangs in balance with Director General of Civil Aviation's (DGCA) raising objections to the proposed services.

Rohit Mehta, president of SGCCI, told TOI, "Deccan's is the classic example of utter neglect of Surat. We have talked to many leading airline companies, but they are not getting support from the DGCA and other concerned departments in the Union civil aviation ministry on starting flight operations from Surat."

Recently, the South Gujarat Hotel and Restaurant Association conducted an exercise of counting actual number of business tourists who arrive in the city on a daily basis.

When asked about their travel preference, about 35 per cent of the approximate 15,000 people who visit the city daily, opted for air travel. They said if they had the option they would have travelled by air directly to Surat and flown back on the same night. Most of these business travellers come to Surat from Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Similarly, about 10,000 traders from textile and jari sector and another 2,000 from the diamond sector travel to different parts of India on a daily basis.