Ex-servicemen object to international airport at Balh

Mandi, December 27

Captain Jagdish Verma (retd), president of Honorary Commissioned Officers Welfare Association of Himachal Pradesh (HCOWA), said the land owners were not willing to sacrifice their land even at the cost of adequate compensation for an international airport at Balh between Nagchala and Mandi. They have been protesting against the project on their land.

“On the behalf of our association, I wrote a letter to Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and urged him to shift the airport site from Balh to Jahu in Mandi. Jahu is the most apt place for an airport as it is a junction of three districts of Mandi, Bilaspur and Hamirpur. Apart from this, most of the land in Jahu region is government, free from fog, is not that fertile as that of Balh which is famous as Mini Punjab,” he added.

“Most significantly, airport at Jahu will not only beneficial to three districts but important from strategic and national security point of view in the event of a war,” he remarked.