Work begins on international airport's interim terminal building in Halwara

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 4

Finally, the work to construct the interim terminal building of an upcoming international airport got underway at Halwara in Ludhiana on Tuesday, the administration has confirmed.

The work was allotted to a Himachal Pradesh-based construction company at Rs 2,272.5 lakh last month, the officials have said.

Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma told The Tribune, here on Tuesday, that Fatehgarh Sahib MP Amar Singh would formally lay the foundation stone of the Rs 38.77-crore project on Wednesday.

He said Synergy Thrislington of Solan was awarded the work to construct the interim terminal building of the new international airport on December 9 after being found to be the lowest and the most suitable bidder among the five eligible bidders.

Sharma, who was monitoring the progress of the project on a daily basis, said the firm was given six months to complete the allotted work.

Divulging the progress of the ongoing work, the PWD (B&R) Superintending Engineer, Rakesh Garg, said the preliminary ground work on the site to construct the state-of-the-art interim terminal building began this morning.

He said the technical team of the private firm had started the survey operations at the site to prepare a layout plan, demarcate the land and undertake levelling work.

The work to design the final structure was also under process and the same would be finalised shortly.

The interim airport terminal will be built on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode on a lump sum basis at the Halwara airbase.

Garg said the work for construction of internal roads, estate public health services and campus lighting at the airport terminal has also picked up pace after the completion of levelling and cleanliness operations on the project site.

The work was allotted to Ludhiana-based Ceigall India Limited on November 8 at Rs 1,604.15 lakh on the EPC mode with a six-month completion deadline.

International flights from interim terminal

The project entails building an interim arrangement to attend immediate requirements to make international flights available to residents of Ludhiana, which was the state’s largest industrial and business city.

The interim terminal building will be a prefabricated steel structure with a modern outlook, spread over a 2,000-sq km area with 3,800-sq meter canopy space having a seating capacity of 300 passengers.

The PWD (B&R) was the main executing agency while a private firm was hired for architectural design of the project.

The scope of the project includes a new terminal building along with the ancillary facilities such as apron taxiway extensions, a sub-station, a boundary wall and an approach road.

Apron to park longest airbus

The terminal will be a state-of-the-art building as per norms and requirements of the AAI while construction of the apron will be suitable to park one AB321-200 type aircraft and widening of taxi track and car park will accommodate 75 cars.

The common concourse area will have provision for snack bar, toilets, AC switch room, drinking water, separate toilets for men and women, first-aid room, supporting office for AAI and airlines. The check-in area will comprise four check-in counters, adequate queuing space, and baggage conveyor belt with a storing space for 50 baggage trolleys.

Besides the flight information display system with adequate number of display devices in departure, arrival and security hold area for passenger facilitation, an adequate number of X-Ray machines for scanning baggage with a required number of security equipment will be installed as per the AAI norms.

Deadline missed

After missing the January 2022 deadline earlier set by the state government to make the new airport operational following much delay in granting the final approval from the Airports Authority of India (AAI), the PWD (B&R) had floated two separate tenders for construction of the airport project.

It was on October 22 that the AAI had accorded formal nod to the construction of a new interim terminal building for the upcoming international airport at a cost of Rs 4,691.12-lakh.

According to the AAI nod, the interim terminal building will be constructed by the Punjab government through its funds, which will be reimbursed to Punjab or its designated agency by the AAI after monetisation of its land at existing Sahnewal airport in Ludhiana.

Already, the construction of the airport link road and 2,333-meter-long boundary wall has been completed.

In a bid to give a boost to the industrial and economic activity in the state, the state government and the AAI were jointly setting up a new international civil terminal at the Air Force Station in Halwara, which is one of the oldest frontline airbases of the Indian Air Force (IAF), close to Ludhiana.

Halwara to replace Sahnewal

Ludhiana, which is Punjab’s largest industrial and business city with a population of nearly 4-million, was at present serviced by a small domestic airport at Sahnewal, which will be shut once the new international airport begins operations. Ludhiana also has the advantage of being at the geographical centre of the state.

Future development

Before the construction of a regular terminal, an interim building will come up to begin the airport operations here. Land measuring 161.28 acres, comprising 135.54 acres for airport and 25.74 acres for future development, had already been acquired.

An alternate approach road to the airport from the Delhi-Katra Expressway was also under proposal by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).

Project report

Total project area: 161.28 acres

Terminal area: 2,000 sq meters

Awarded cost: Rs3,876.65 lakh

Completion target: June 2022

Boundary wall, approach road cost: Rs309.33 crore

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