10 deadlines missed, upcoming International airport still not ready to take off

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, April 9

In what appears to be a classic case of red-tapism and official inefficiency, the upcoming international airport at Halwara in Ludhiana has missed as many as 10 deadlines and is still not ready to take off, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has said.

The Rs 47-crore much-awaited and much-delayed big ticket project has missed another deadline of March 31, which was the tenth in a row since January 2022, and several components of the ongoing work were still short of as much as 85 per cent and as low as 15 per cent for completion.

This was despite the fact that the Union Government had in January asked the AAI and the state government to ensure early completion of the new international airport.

It was following a demand raised by the Rajya Sabha MP from Ludhiana, Sanjeev Arora, that the Union Civil Aviation Secretary, Vumlunmang Vualnam, had issued directions for early completion of the Centre-state joint venture.

PROJECT REPORT

• 161.28 acres Total area
• 2,000 sq m Terminal area
• Rs 3,876.65 lakh Awarded cost
• Rs 309.33 crore Boundary wall, approach road cost
• Missed deadlines: January, June 2022, June, July, August 15, August 30, September 30, October 30, 2023, February 29, March 31, 2024
• Fresh deadline: May 15

Tasks cleared

• Upcomimg airport’s peripheral road crust finalised.
• Apron and taxiway designs were approved.
• Specified designs for IAF-governed areas submitted.
• IAF nod to widen internal taxiways.

Flights to be operational soon

We are in the process of making the airport operational shortly following which more domestic and new international flights will be launched from here. We have been providing all requisite support to finish the ongoing work at the earliest. — Bhagwant Mann, CM

Irked over the slow pace of the ongoing work, Arora has pulled up officials of the Public Works Department (PWD) and contractors, who had been entrusted with civil and other related jobs inside and outside the airport campus.

The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) member from Punjab in the Upper House of Parliament has even warned of censuring the negligent and callous officials, besides getting blacklisted private contractors for the inordinate delay in the completion of the ongoing work.

“I have directed them to pull all stops to expedite the ongoing work and ensure the completion in all respects till May 15, which has been fixed as the fresh deadline,” Arora told The Tribune, after reviewing the current status of the project, on Tuesday.

While the integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal building, sub-station and toilet block at the Air Force Station in Halwara, which is one of the oldest frontline airbases of the Indian Air Force (IAF), close to Ludhiana, had already come up, allied works of the major civil aviation project have reached the advanced stage of completion.

With all pending nods having been procured, the work on all other components, which were stalled since long, has failed to meet the latest deadline of March 31.

The Rajya Sabha MP said the ongoing construction work had already reached the advanced stage of completion with the overall progress of the mega project having crossed the 98 per cent mark.

Arora, who visited the project site here recently, said the construction firm had committed to complete the ongoing works by May 15.

He said the state government had so far released Rs 30 crore to complete the ongoing balance work of the upcoming airport and the demand of balance funds had already been forwarded to the Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) and the Civil Aviation Department, which had been mandated to jointly bear the financial burden.

Divulging the component-wise status, Arora said the construction of the interim terminal building, sub-station, and toilet block had been completed. All these three components of the new airport were being given the finishing touches before handing them over to the AAI.

He said the balance work, which was allotted on April 13 last with a time limit of completion in five months, was scheduled to be completed by September 12 but due to the bad weather and delay in the mandatory nods, the job would now be finished by May 15.

The components of balance works, including apron, has been completed 75 per cent, taxiway 50 per cent, and internal roads, lighting and public health works have touched the 85 per cent mark.

While the upcoming approach road to the airport campus and the work on bridge at the entry of the approach road have been completed 65 per cent each, the allied works on the premises of the IAF base have been done 15 per cent so far.

The pending jobs were also scheduled to be finished by next month.

“A proposal for enhancing the work of already engaged agencies has already been taken up by the Union Civil Aviation Ministry for approval,” Arora added.

Recently, the AAI and the IAF had granted in-principle approvals to undertake the balance work at the upcoming international airport.

Since the new integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal are coming up at the Air Force Station in Halwara, the formal nod of the IAF was mandatory to undertake the work inside the Air Force-governed areas.

With this, all pending approvals for the mega civil aviation project had been granted and the work to undertake the balance tasks has taken off on the ground.

Following the delay in these approvals, several components of the project had remained suspended for a long time and had gotten much delayed.

Recently, Arora had called on the Civil Aviation Minister and Secretary and briefed them about the issues in details, following which the Centre had showed prompt response and had accorded the formal approvals of the project, which were lying pending with his ministry for a long time while those falling under the purview of the IAF were taken up with the Defence Ministry.

He said the IAF had also given its nod to widen internal taxiways in the upcoming civil enclave.

“Union Civil Aviation Ministry has already begun the process to launch the flight operations by the time a new airport comes up,” Arora added.

Two verticals

The construction work of the project was divided into two verticals — construction of internal roads, estate public health services and campus lighting in the interim airport terminal and construction of the interim airport terminal building.

While the first vertical was allotted on November 8, 2021, the second was awarded on December 9, 2021.

Both works were stopped by the agencies in April and May, 2022, due to non-payment of funds by GLADA.

The work had resumed on November 17 last after the state government had made available Rs 50-crore corpus for the project.

Will ensure early take off, says MP Arora

“I have pulled up the official machinery as well private contractors to further accelerate the pace of ongoing work as all pending approvals have already been granted and the pending work to build the new international airport has been taken up on a war-footing. We have already pulled all stops to complete the ambitious project, which we will ensure takes off shortly.” the Rajya Sabha MP said.

Rs 50-cr allocated

Of the total allocation of Rs 50 crore by the state government, a sum of Rs 30 crore had already been transferred while the total requirement estimated so far was of Rs 45 crore.

For this purpose, the Finance Department (FD) has released a sum of Rs 30 crore while the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD) through Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has undertaken to bear the expenditure of Rs 20 crore.

Name proposed

The Punjab Vidhan Sabha had recently unanimously adopted a resolution to request the Centre to name the airport after Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha.

Moving the resolution during the Budget session, the Chief Minister had said it would be a humble tribute to the martyr who laid down his life for the motherland as he had been an inspiration for young generations.

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