IAF works almost complete, runway overlaying by March 31

With the Indian Air Force (IAF) also completing most of the pending works on its premises and putting the runway overlaying work on fast-track, the new international airport coming up at the Halwara air base awaits formal code and operational date to take off, the government has said.

While the entire civil work is already done, the majority job on the IAF premises is in the advanced stage of completion and will be ready by January 31 following which the Airports Authority of India (AAI) will issue the airport code, which is mandatory for operations, and tentative operational date.

With this, the bidding process for the operations of the airlines will also be launched shortly, which will take a couple of months before the commercial flights begin operations from here.

Air India has already announced plans to launch flights from Ludhiana once the airport becomes operational.

While the overlaying of Taxi-A, Taxi-D and New Link Taxi on the IAF premises is 95 to 98 per cent complete, March 31 is the deadline for completing the ongoing overlaying of the runway from where the flights will operate, Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal told The Tribune, here on Saturday.

The development assumes significance as the Rs 50-crore much-awaited and much-delayed big ticket project took over three years and missed at least 14 deadlines to see the light of the day.

Ludhiana, which is state’s industrial hub with almost 4 million population, is at present serviced by a small airport at Sahnewal. Located at the geographical centre of Punjab, the new airport will serve the entire state as well as neighbouring areas.

Jorwal, who reviewed the ongoing work at the site, said the integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal building, sub-station and toilet block at Air Force Station in Halwara, which was one of the oldest frontline airbases of the IAF, close to Ludhiana, had already come up, the allied civil works of the major civil aviation project had also been completed.

With all pending nods having been procured, the work on other components, which faced long delays in the past for want of statutory approvals, has also been finished.

The DC said the civil construction work had already been completed and the IAF, which owns the airbase on which the airport had been built, had also finished up to 98 per cent work to widen/overlay link taxiways on the Air Force campus, following which the airport will become operational.

While the overlaying of Taxi A was done 98 per cent, the overlaying of Taxi D and New Link Taxi on the IAF campus was completed 95 per cent.

The AAI and other agencies concerned were in the process of finalising contracts for civil, electrical, environmental support services, help desk, and commercial contracts such as food and beverages, retail, and passenger baggage trolley services, which will be completed by March 31.

While security equipment, including X-Ray baggage inspection system, hand-held metal detectors (HHMDs) and door frame metal detectors, being provided by the Airport System Directorate from the corporate headquarters of the AAI will be installed by January 31, the installation of the flight information display system and CCTV network has already been completed.

The installation of signage inside the terminal building was almost complete while the signage on city and air sides will be completed by the month end.

While the car parking for 75 cars and two buses was ready and the security manpower survey by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) was completed, the final security vetting by the BCAS, fire NOC, and statutory approval from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) will be issued by January 31.

Miscellaneous works such as cooling pits, security watchtowers, levelling near apron area and tree cutting will be done by the month end, telephone and internet connections inside the terminal will be operational between January 31 and February 28.

Besides, the work on the STP and drinking water facility has been completed.

The finishing touches were being given to the interim terminal building, sub-station, toilet block, apron, and taxiway before handing them over to the AAI.

Also, the bridge at the entry of the approach road has been fully constructed while the approach road to the airport campus has been almost completed.

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora had already urged AAI Chairman Vipin Kumar to issue the airport code and confirming the operational date, as these steps were crucial for the airlines to file the necessary NOC with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and to obtain the requisite permissions from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

“Acting swiftly, the AAI Chairman instructed the officials concerned from the operations team to do the needful at the earliest possible,” Arora said while adding that Air India had already conveyed its decision to launch flights from Ludhiana.

AAI Chairman assured Arora that commercial flight operations from Ludhiana would commence soon.

Earlier, Arora had met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and had requested for expediting work by the IAF.

Recently, the AAI and the IAF had granted in-principle approvals to undertake the balance work at the upcoming airport. Since the new integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal are coming up at Air Force Station, the formal nod of the IAF was mandatory to undertake the work inside IAF-governed areas.

Rs 50-cr corpus

The state government has already transferred the entire corpus of Rs 50 crore that it had allocated for the project.

While the Finance Department (FD) has released a sum of Rs 30 crore, the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUDD) through GLADA has spent Rs 20 crore.

Committed to launching flights soon: CM

“Once the runway is overlaid and the AAI issues the statutory code and operational go-ahead, the new airport will take off with the launch of commercial domestic and international flights. We had already completed our work and had provided all requisite support and assistance to finish the pending works at the earliest,” said Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister.