Air operations may be delayed: AAI

CHANDIGARH: Operations from the newly constructed international standard terminal of the Chandigarh airport are expected to be delayed further, if a recent letter by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the Director of the Chandigarh airport is to be believed.

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 5

Operations from the newly constructed international standard terminal of the Chandigarh airport are expected to be delayed further, if a recent letter by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to the Director of the Chandigarh airport is to be believed.

The development gains significance in wake of the expected visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the city towards the end of the month. It was being speculated that the PM would inaugurate the new terminal.

AAI authorities said the terminal had some operational problems. In the internal communication exchange by the AAI on July 2, the AAI Manager (commercial) has written “The operations from the new Chandigarh international airport at Mohali is postponed for some more time due to operational problems. The ongoing contracts at the (existing) terminal building can continue to operate till the closure of operations from the terminal building as per the orders of the competent authority’’.

However, MS Duhan, Director, Chandigarh domestic airport, denied any such delay and claimed that the letter was limited to the renewal of contracts for shops/edifices located at the existing terminal.

“The update has nothing to do with starting of operations from the new terminal. The letter mentions that the contracts of shops/ edifices, already located at the current terminal, should be continued till the time the new terminal becomes operational. The new terminal is said to be ready for hosting operations, but no exact date has been finalised as of now” said Duhan.

When asked about opening lines (operational problems) of written communication, the Director maintained that, “The new terminal is ready to host the function in full swing”.

The project with a new terminal of international standards to come up at Jhurjeri village of Mohali district, was announced in 2007 by the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The project that was started in 2008 had skipped many deadlines before the final completion time in April 2015.