Chandigarh to submit report on shorter route to airport

Chandigarh, March 23

Nearly seven years after a petition was filed in public interest on making the Chandigarh international airport fully functional after spending Rs1,400 crore, the UT Administration has undertaken to submit a report on the steps taken for providing an “alternative shorter route” for approaching the airport.

As the petition filed in public interest by the Mohali Industries Association came up for resumed hearing before the Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli, Additional Solicitor-General of India, as well as the counsel for the Union of India, prayed for and were granted time to file a status report indicating the works and steps taken by them pursuant to a decision taken at a meeting, dated March 19, 2020.

The case will now come up for further hearing on May 26. The developments took place during the hearing of a petition filed by the Mohali Industries Association against non-operation of the Chandigarh international airport. The case came up for effective hearing after more than two years. The matter could not be taken up as the courts went into restrictive functioning mode following the Covid outbreak.

The High Court, on March 3, 2020, directed the Chief of Defence Staff, the airport authority and other stakeholders to put their heads together for resolving the issues around the installation of the CAT-III instrument landing system at the airport.

The Bench had then observed that even though the need for installing CAT-III was not being felt with full force today, its requirement would be felt later. As such, it was necessary to resolve the issues surrounding its installation.

Appearing before the Bench, the then Assistant Solicitor-General of India, Chetan Mittal, had underscored the difficulties in installing the facility at the airport. More than a few defence structures would have to be demolished for the purpose. As such, the need to provide it in future could be considered at a later stage

Amicus curiae or the friend of the court ML Sarin also told the Bench during the hearing that the Air Chief Marshal in reference to the airport said there was no difficulty in installing CAT-III.