Airport not to close for runway resurfacing

Nitin Jain

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 18

There is good news for air passengers. The new Chandigarh international airport will not close for runway resurfacing.

The Union Government has given the nod to undertake the work to resurface the runway without disturbing the flight operations here.

To facilitate the work, which would have otherwise led to the closure of the airport operations for almost a year, the Punjab Government and the UT Administration will provide 80 acres of land contiguous with the airport for constructing a parallel taxi track, a top government functionary told Chandigarh Tribune here today.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) will construct the parallel taxi track, the cost of which will be shared by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which has planned the construction. The old domestic Chandigarh airport belongs to the IAF.

Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has accorded formal clearance to the project following the intervention of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

The development assumes significance as the Union Ministry of Defence had earlier taken a unilateral decision to close the operations at the Chandigarh airport for at least nine to 10 months to undertake the runway resurfacing work.

Realising the repercussions of the move, which would have deprived air passengers of the region from taking flights from here, Badal had, in May, called up Parrikar, seeking his intervention for providing clearance to complete the runway resurfacing work at the Chandigarh airport without disrupting the flight operations here.

Accepting Badal’s request to follow the Goa airport model, where the Ministry of Defence had undertaken a similar work without closing the flight operations, the Defence Minister has informed the Chief Minister that the Chandigarh airport will not be closed for the runway resurfacing work.

Confirming the development, Principal Secretary, Civil Aviation, Viswajeet Khanna told Chandigarh Tribune that a demi-official letter from Parrikar, addressed to Badal, had been received to this effect and the state government had asked the IAF to identify the requisite land, which would be acquired for constructing the parallel taxi track.

In his communication, the Defence Minister told the Chief Minister that he had got the matter examined and he had been informed that considering the importance of the Chandigarh airport for military and civil operations, the solution lay in constructing a parallel taxi track for facilitating uninterrupted operations here.

To carry out minimum repairs on the present runway by way of “special repairs”, the Ministry of Defence has taken certain decisions, which Parrikar has mentioned in his letter.

“For the construction of the parallel taxi track, Punjab and Chandigarh will be required to acquire 80 acres of land contiguous to the existing IAF station,” the Defence Minister told Badal, while adding that the IAF had been asked to do the needful.

Acting swiftly, the state government has asked the IAF to identify the requisite land for acquisition. “As soon as the IAF approaches us with the identified land, we will move ahead to acquire it,” Khanna said. A swanky new Chandigarh international airport, which is a joint venture of Punjab, Haryana and the AAI, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 11. Describing it as a “magnificent” building, Modi had said the airport would play a key role in the economic development of the region.

Pvt airlines expected to start international flights

With the Defence Ministry clearing the air over the possible closure of the international airport, the authorities expect private airlines to come forward for starting international flights. Fear of closure of the airport for the resurfacing work had so far not let international flights take off.