Finally, new International airport gets ready, flights to begin shortly
Come New Year, Ludhiana will be on the global air map as the new international airport at the Halwara airbase is almost ready and will take off anytime in early next year, the government has said.
With the balance work inside the civil terminal enclave premises in advanced stage of completion, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has fixed December 31 as the deadline to complete the job under its territory.
The Rs 5,822.12-lakh much-awaited and much-delayed big ticket project took three years and missed at least 13 deadlines to see the light of the day.
While the integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal building, sub-station and toilet block at the Air Force Station in Halwara, which is 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 have also been completed.
With all pending nods having been procured, the work on all other components, which faced long delays in the past for want of statutory approvals, has also been finished.
Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal told The Tribune, here on Friday that 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 80 per cent work to widen link taxiways within the IAF campus. Following which, the airport would become operational.
Jorwal said the IAF had assured to complete the pending work under its territory before December 31.
The DC said once the IAF completed the work under its jurisdiction, the minor finishing work at the level of the state government and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) would be done simultaneously.
“We will make the civil airport terminal ready in all respects by December 15 and hand it over to the Centre by December 31, before which the IAF will also complete its task,” Jorwal said.
Divulging the component-wise status, the DC said the construction of the interim terminal building, sub-station and toilet block had been completed. These three components of the new airport were being given the finishing touches before handing them over to the AAI.
While the bridge at the entry of approach road has been constructed, components of balance works, including apron, taxiway, internal roads, lighting and public health works and the upcoming approach road to the airport campus has been built 95 per cent.
The allied works on the premises of the IAF base have also been completed 80 per cent so far.
Jorwal said the widening of link taxiways A and D was currently in progress in coordination with the IAF. The work on link taxiway D was currently in progress following the completion of the culvert construction by the Military Engineer Services (MES).
However, the 80-m stretch of the link taxiway was yet to be handed over to the PWD for execution. “This work will also be completed forthwith once this portion is given to us,” the DC said.
He has directed all departments to finish pending jobs before December 15 positively. “Once the IAF also completes the work, the airport will be ready to take off,” Jorwal said.
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 the Air Force Station in Halwara, the formal nod of the IAF was mandatory to undertake the work inside Air Force-governed areas.
Two verticals
The construction work of the project was divided into two verticals — construction of internal roads, estate public health services and campus lighting in the interim airport terminal and construction of interim airport terminal building.
While the first vertical was allotted on November 8, 2021, the second was awarded on December 9, 2021.
Both works were stopped by agencies in April and May 2022, due to non-payment of funds by GLADA.
The work had resumed on November 17 last after the state government had made available Rs 50-crore corpus for the project.
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 Greater Ludhiana Area Development Authority (GLADA) has spent Rs 20 crore.
Name proposed
The Punjab Vidhan Sabha had unanimously adopted a resolution to request the Centre to name the airport after Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha.
Moving the resolution during the last Budget session, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had said it would be a humble tribute to the martyr who laid down his life for the motherland. He had said the martyr had been an inspiration for young generations.
However, the Centre was yet to take a call on the matter.
New year gift: CM
“We are in the process of making the airport operational in early 2025 following which more domestic and new international flights will be launched from here. We have been providing all requisite
support to finish the ongoing work at the earliest,” said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
