Chandigarh airport to remain closed from May 12 to 31 : The Tribune India

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Chandigarh airport to remain closed from May 12 to 31

As the case came up for resumed hearing Tuesday afternoon, a communication on rescheduling the conference was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal. Tribune file photo

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 15

Chandigarh International Airport will remain closed from May 12 to May 31 for the ongoing work of upgrading runway.

The decision follows the grounding of plans to hold the governors’ conference in Chandigarh.

The high court, in its previous hearing, was told that the airport had to remain functionalt between May 18 and 20 for a two-day governors’ conference scheduled n Chandigarh from May 19.

But as the case came up for resumed hearing Tuesday afternoon, a communication on rescheduling the conference was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal.

The communication addressed to Advisor to the UT Administrator Parimal Rai by Joint Secretary to the President Bharat Lal said the conference was now scheduled on June 4 and 5 at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.

Referring to the communication, the counsel appearing for the Airport Authority of India said the initial closure schedule could continue. Taking a note of the assertion, the hgh curt directed the contractor carrying out the work to submit a progress report.

The high court also directed northern railway authorities to explore the possibility to attaching extra coaches during the closure period. The case will now come up on May 11 for further hearing.

The Indian Air Force had initially requested for closure of the airport between May 12 and May 31, or May 14 to June 2 for laying final layers during the re-carpeting process.

The authorities had claimed that the runway length was being extended from the present 9,000 feet to 10,400 feet to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft, such as Boeing 777, 787 and 747 for facilitating long haul flights from Chandigarh to destinations inEurope, USA, Canada and the UK.

The matter had reached the high court after Mohali Industries Association had filed a petition in public interest, seeking directions to the Union of India to submit a status report on re-carpeting and upgrading the runway.