Airport to remain closed from May 12 to 31

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 17

The Chandigarh international airport will remain closed, in accordance with the initial schedule, from May 12 to May 31 for the ongoing runway upgrade work. The decision follows grounding of plans to hold the Governors’ conference in Chandigarh next month.

The High Court, on the previous date of hearing, was told that the airport was required to remain operational between May 18 and 20 for the two-day Governors’ conference, scheduled to be held in Chandigarh from May 19.

However, as the case came up for resumed hearing on Tuesday afternoon, a communication on the “rescheduling of the conference of Governors — 2018” was placed before the Division Bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal and Justice Amit Rawal.

The communication addressed to UT Adviser Parimal Rai by Bharat Lal, Joint Secretary to the President, said the conference was now scheduled to be held on June 4 and 5 at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi

Referring to the communication, Assistant Solicitor General of India Chetan Mittal said the initial closure schedule would, as such, continue. Mittal also told the Bench that technical formalities were on after in-principle approval for the installation of the CAT-III facilities to enable landing during poor visibility. “It now appears that CAT-III will be installed,” Chetan told the Bench.

The Bench was also told that the issue regarding the supply of bitumen for upgrade work had been sorted out. An officer, appearing before the Bench on behalf of the Indian Oil Corporation, said proper supply was being maintained. On behalf of Hindustan Coal, counsel assured the Bench of regular supply on a week’s requisition notice.

Taking a note of the assertions, the Bench directed the contractor carrying out the work to submit the status report on the progress of the upgrade work, scheduled to be over by May 31.

The High Court also directed the Northern Railway general manager to explore the possibility for extra coaches and trains after the amicus curiae or the friend of the court, senior advocate ML Sarin, pointed out that this time the closure was during the peak season. The case will now come up on May 11 for further hearing.

The IAF 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 recarpeting process.

The authorities had claimed that the runway length was being extended from  9,000 ft to 10,400 ft to accommodate wide-bodied aircraft, such as Boeing 777, 787 and 747, for facilitating flights from Chandigarh to  Europe, the US, Canada and the UK.