The airport at Chandigarh, which has been marred by consistent delays, has come up over 308 acres of land at Jheurheri village in SAS Nagar.
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| PM Modi arrives in Chandigarh |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the Chandigarh International Airport in a brief ceremony at SAS Nagar in the presence of Punjab and Haryana Governor, the Chief Ministers of both the states, and leaders of the BJP and the SAD. The airport was, however, expected to be operational by October 19, until when all the 26 domestic flights to and from the city will operate from the existing airport.
The name of the airport has not been announced.
The PM Modi, however, has not said anything about what the new airport will be named.
Punjab and Haryana, both equal stakeholders, are yet to agree upon the name of the airport. Haryana wants it to be named after Chandigarh, while Punjab is pressing for the terminal to be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Some Chandigarh residents have demanded that the airport be named after the iconic artist and Rock Garden creater, Nek Chand, who passed away recently. Until then, the terminal is just being referred to as Chandigarh International Airport.
Sprawling terminal
The operations of the international airport will be run under the joint venture of Chandigarh International Airport Limited (CHIAL); the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has 51% stake and the remaining is equally shared by Punjab and Haryana (24.5% each).
The AAI has invested in the construction of the terminal building, taxiway and other related infrastructure, while Punjab and Haryana contributed by transferring 308 acres of land to it. The new terminal building has been designed on a Green Building concept, and has five levels. The arrival hall is on the ground floor and the departure on the first.
The new terminal project also includes an elevated road to facilitate departure of passengers from the first floor, besides an interconnected tunnel for services, which also joins the terminal building and the service block. The new terminal building project also includes rain water harvesting and re-use of treated water for flushing and gardening.
The new airport features -
Area: 308 acres
Cost: Rs 452 crore
Distance from Sector-17 ISBT: 19km
Terminal building area: 53,000 sq m
Depature: Upper Floor,
Arrival: Ground Floor
Aerobridges: 4
Passenger capacity: 1,600 (1,150 domestic; 450 international)
Immigration counters: 8
Ticketing counters: 12
Check-in counters: 48
Automated Car-parking capacity: 500
Issues that remain to be resolved-
The runway is under the control of the Indian Air Force. It needs to be upgraded for full-sized, wide-bodied aircraft, which will take another two years.
The air traffic controller (ATC) is also with the IAF. It is yet to decide on making the runaway available round the clock for civil aircraft.
The landing of aircraft in low visibility is another area. The existing system is CAT-I ILS, good enough for 1200 m visibility. The CAT-II system will be made operational by 2017.
December 24 2015.
The new Chandigarh International Airport was supposed to be operational after October 18. The International Airport would have given a boost to economical growth of Punjab & Haryana. But it did not happen.
The Mohali Industry Association (MIA) has filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Punjab and Haryana high court with regard to international flights not being started from the international airport at SAS Nagar even three months after its inauguration.
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| Dy CM of Punjab visits MIA |
Taking up the PIL, a high court bench on Thursday issued a notice for January 15 to ministry of civil aviation, Airport Authority of India and chief secretaries of Punjab and Haryana.
Talking to media, the MIA president Sanjeev Vashist (Lambodra Infotech) said, “It is disheartening that the Centre has not yet given the go-ahead for operating international flights from the region. It is a wastage of facilities of international standards available at airport if only domestic flights are to be operated from there.”
MIA general secretary Gagan Chhabra said, “We are losing foreign investment with delay in international flights from here.”
The PIL has been filed seeking from the court to direct the Centre to start international flights from the airport in SAS Nagar at the earliest.