Adampur civil airport inches towards reality

CHANDIGARH:The much-awaited project of the civil airport at the Adampur (Doaba) Air Force station is inching towards reality with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) asking the state government to make arrangements for 80 acres of land parcel towards the expansion of the existing runway of the airport for thepurpose.

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

The much-awaited project of the civil airport at the Adampur (Doaba) Air Force station is inching towards reality with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) asking the state government to make arrangements for 80 acres of land parcel towards the expansion of the existing runway of the airport for the purpose.

The AAI has advised the state government to confirm its 50 per cent grant-in-aid share of Rs. 31 crore apart from submitting a tentative plan, showing the land required for setting up of the civil enclave part of the project. The AAI has also urged the state government to jointly identify and finalise the exact land parcel in coordination with the Indian Air Force (IAF).

The AAI board has already accorded its formal approval for setting up of the civil airport at the Adampur Air Force station. The proposed civil airport will be a boon for thousands of NRIs, businessmen and travellers hailing from the Doaba region of Punjab. The maximum benefit of the civil airport would be to NRIs settled in the Gulf countries, Europe and North America, apart from business houses and exporters of hand tools, pipe fittings and growers of vegetables and flowers.

Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Vijay Sampla has been taking up the civil airport with the Central and the state government. “I am now pursuing the state government for the fast acquisition of the land for the airport even as a master plan has been developed for the initial phase-I of development of the Civil Enclave at an estimated project cost of Rs 62 crore. The Centre has even committed to bear the 50 per cent state share so as to ensure speeding up the project,” said Sampla while talking to The Tribune here today.

He said the techno-economic viability feasibility report had already established that the proposed civil airport at Adampur would be a big success for Doaba-based NRIs in the Gulf countries, North America, Europe and Australia.

“The civil airport will bring a huge benefit and a great degree of convenience to thousands of students of the Doaba area of Punjab who are studying abroad,” said Sampla.

Setting up of the civil airport has been a long-standing demand of people of the Doaba region. Before Sampla, late Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral had made serious efforts to convert the dream into a reality, but the project had got stalled for want of defence clearances.