Passengers Chant 'Jai Shri Ram' as Inaugural Flight from Delhi Lands at Ayodhya's New Airport | WATCH

Chants of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ echoed as passengers alighted from the inaugural flight, which took off from Delhi, at the newly constructed Maharishi Valmiki International Airport in Ayodhya on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the airport and held a grand roadshow during his visit to the new-look temple town in Uttar Pradesh, where the idol of Ram will be consecrated in a ceremony on January 22.

“This place is holy and sacred. This is Lord Ram’s place, there is no other place which is as holy as this…those who have taken birth here are very lucky…I can’t express my happiness…” Baskar Shukla, one of the passengers on the flight, told news agency ANI.

‘Passengers chanted mantras, recited Hanuman Chalisa, sang bhajans’

Not only this, the IndiGo pilot Ashutosh Shekhar also chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ on the aircraft’s public announcement system when it took off from Delhi. Addressing the passengers, he said he felt fortunate that his company entrusted him with the responsibility to fly the first flight to Ayodhya.

He introduced his co-pilot Nikhil Bakshi and cabin in-charge Kirti to the flyers. While Shekhar was addressing the passengers, his wife Sweta Ranjan recorded this “memorable” event on her mobile phone. “It was a lifetime experience,” Ranjan told PTI.

“Passengers chanted mantras, recited Hanuman Chalisa and sang bhajans throughout the journey from Delhi to Ayodhya. The whole atmosphere in the cabin was spiritual,” she added.

Talking about the passengers, Ranjan said they were dressed in saffron outfits and many of them tied saffron headgear. “They were carrying gangajal, incense sticks, flowers and sweets. Some of them even carried saffron flags with ‘Jai Shri Ram’, ‘Om’ or ‘Swastika’ on them,” Ranjan said, adding that the atmosphere was almost the same when the flight was returning to Delhi with devotees.

Union minister VK Singh also travelled in the return flight. The inaugural flight started at 2.40 pm and landed in Ayodhya at 4 pm. On the return journey, the flight took off at 4.40 pm and reached Delhi at 5.55 in the evening.