Work on international sairport project in Halwara picks up pace

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, March 1

The ongoing work to construct the interim terminal building of the upcoming international airport has picked up pace at Halwara here, the administration has confirmed.

The work was allotted to a Himachal Pradesh-based construction company at Rs 2,272.5 lakh in December last and the foundation stone of the project was laid by Fatehgarh Sahib MP Amar Singh on January 5, officials have said.Interim terminal building and allied works are carried out at the cost of Rs 38.77 crore.

CMSPEAK

The work on new international airport is progressing fast and will be completed within the stipulated time to begin the operations within the next four months. The new airport will give a major boost to the economic development of Ludhiana and help attract more investment and jobs for the city, besides improving its air connectivity. — Charanjit Singh Channi, Chief Minister

Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma, told The Tribune, here on Tuesday, that the construction of the interim terminal building and internal roads has been taken up on a priority basis and significant progress has been made on the project in the past two months.

He said the works on the new terminal building, public conveniences, guardrooms, substations, electrical works, new link taxiway from the IAF wall to apron, connecting road from terminal to apron, city side and approach road from boundary wall to terminal building are in progress and the private agencies concerned have been directed to expedite the works.

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. PWD (B&R) Executive Engineer, Adesh Gupta, said all prerequisite tests and pre-construction activities such as survey and sub-soil investigation had been completed.

He said structural and architecture drawings had been submitted to the NIT, Jalandhar, for vetting while samples of construction material had been sent to Thapar Institute in Patiala for concrete mixture design.

The construction material has been dumped at the site for undertaking work on substations, public conveniences and underground tanks.

Gupta said embankment and subgrade throughout the stretch of internal roads had also been completed and subgrade top layers for 5, 7 and 10-meter carriageway width had been laid.

While a granular sub-base for 7 and 10-meter carriageway width has been prepared, wet mix macadam for 10-m carriageway was also in progress.

He said a ready mix concrete plant had also been established at the site for undertaking the construction works.

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

The interim terminal will be a prefabricated steel structure with a modern outlook, spread over a 2,000-sq-km area with 3,800-sq m 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 the architectural design of the project.

The scope of the project includes a new terminal building along with ancillary facilities such as apron taxiway extensions, sub-station, boundary wall and 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 the taxi track and car park will accommodate 75 cars.

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 the construction of the 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 the cost of Rs 4,691.12 lakh.

According to the AAI nod, the interim building will be constructed by the Punjab Government through the state government funds, which will be reimbursed to the state or its designated agency by the AAI after monetisation of its land at the 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, Halwara.

Halwara to replace Sahnewal

Ludhiana, having 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).

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