Old building to be renovated for temporary terminal

Nitish Sharma

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Ambala, February 5

After remaining stuck for over four years, the civil airport project in Ambala Cantonment is expected to take off soon.

Until the construction of the new terminal for the civil airport, an abandoned building on the Army land will be renovated and used as a temporary terminal, for which a proposal has been sent to the Airports Authority of India. The approval is expected within 10 days, and it might take about six months to start the operations, added the sources.

In December 2018, the civil airport project was approved under the Udan 3.0 scheme by the Central Government. In 2019, routes from Srinagar and Lucknow were awarded to an airline by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, and flights were expected to start from July 15, 2020, but they did not.

A 20-acre land next to the Air Force station was identified for the terminal, and in 2021, a fund worth Rs 40 crore was approved for the construction of the domestic terminal.

“Now, efforts are being made to make the Ambala-Srinagar route operational at the earliest. However, it will depend on the number of aircraft to be deployed after analysing traffic,” said sources.

Deputy Commissioner Ambala Dr Priyanka Soni said, “A meeting has been held with the Civil Aviation and the Army officials. A chunk of the Army land will be acquired for constructing the terminal, the process for which has already been initiated. We are hopeful that soon flights will take off from Ambala.”

Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij said, “A 20-acre Army land was identified, the details of which have been uploaded on e-Bhoomi portal. Soon after the Army’s approval, the land registration work will be completed.” All efforts will be made to increase air connectivity from Ambala, he added.