Mohali Int’l Airport hangs fire as PM cancelled visit

Varinder Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 22

Local residents’ hopes of the Mohali International Airport becoming operational in the second week of this month were dashed when Prime Minister Narendra Modi cancelled his visit to the region on June 19. Modi was to inaugurate the 300-acre airport during his visit to the region to celebrate the 350th foundation year of Anandpur Sahib.

Sources said neither the PM nor the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had given a positive response to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s repeated pleas of Modi inaugurating the airport.

With fissures appearing in the SAD-BJP alliance, the PMO also didn’t pay heed to the pleas of Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapati Raju in this regard. Sources said the SAD and the BJP had disagreements over the levy of entry tax on sugarcane and the shifting of militant Devinder Pal Bhullar from Tihar Jail in Delhi to Amritsar Central Jail.

“We have not received any information pertaining to the inauguration of the airport so far,” said International Airport Chief Executive Officer Sunil Dutt. Viswajeet Khanna, Principal Secretary, Civil Aviation, refused to mention a tentative date for the inauguration of the airport.

Moreover, Punjab and Haryana have failed to resolve the row over the renaming of the international airport as no formal notification has been issued so far. While, Punjab has been urging the Centre to name the international airport after Shahid Bhagat Singh, Haryana demands the airport be called Chandigarh International Airport.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has finalised the first phase of the construction of the 300-acre international airport. The new terminal is equipped to handle 2.5 million passengers annually. The capacity of the existing domestic terminal is just 1.2 million passengers.

Khanna said, “The international airport is ready and the requisite three of the five aero-bridges have been set up for the smooth movement of passengers from terminal to the aircraft.”

Two carriers—Spicejet and Indigo—have already been given permission by the ministry of civil aviation to fly from Mohali to Dubai, while another operator Air India is set to enter the fray. “We are ready with one international terminal and if need be, two more such terminals could be set up,” said Khanna.

Once the airport is operational, passengers in the area will save money as the tickets in the city would be cheaper than in Delhi. In Delhi, VAT was 19 per cent as compared 4 per cent in Chandigarh, said a senior official of the civil aviation department.