Wait for shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali may get longer

Chandigarh, February 13

The construction of a shorter route to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali is likely to get delayed.

The UT Administration had recently sent a proposal for the shorter route to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for its approval. The MHA was likely to take up the issue after the Lok Sabha elections, said sources.

The proposal was sent to the MHA for its financial approval since the project cost exceeds Rs 100 crore. The land acquisition process, estimated to take more than six months, will commence after getting approval and construction would start thereafter.

A total of 51 acres are to be acquired for the project, of which 39.6 acres fall in Chandigarh and 12 acres in Punjab’s Jagatpura and Khandala villages.

The UT Administration has planned a shorter route from near Sector 48. The new road will start from the T-point intersection of Vikas Marg (coming from the Sector 43 ISBT) and Purv Marg (coming from Tribune Chowk). The current distance from this intersection to the airport is 11.5 km after traversing through Mohali. The shorter route will reduce it to around 3.5 km, thereby bringing the travel time down from 25 minutes to 5 minutes.

The planned shorter route will be 60 m wide, with three main carriageways, two service lanes, and 2-m-wide cycle tracks on both sides.