Starting from October 3, IAF will start the runway upgradation at the Chandigarh Airport. Express
CHIEF MINISTER Amarinder Singh’s request regarding relaxation in the watch hours by one hour from October 3 at the Chandigarh International Airport has been turned down by the Indian Air Force (IAF) saying that it cannot be further reduced, as the watch hours for the runway upgradation decided for the airport is “bare minimum” to ensure quality of work.
“The request of Hon’ble Chief Minister of Punjab regarding relaxation in the watch hours by one hour was also discussed in the meeting and the IAF official informed that resurfacing work requires minimum 14 hours of ensuring the quality of work. In this case the working hour is already a minimum of 13 hours which is bare minimum and it cannot be further reduced,” the IAF said in a meeting held in New Delhi last week following the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The representatives of Ministry of Defence, IAF, Home Ministry, government of Punjab, Haryana, Air India and other organisations attended the meet.
Starting from October 3, IAF will start the runway upgradation at the Chandigarh Airport. According to the minutes of meeting held last week, IAF said that from October 3, the revised operating window for civil operations would be from 5 am to 3 pm till October 31, 2017, and from November 1, 2017, to 31 March, 2018, it will be from 5 am to 4 pm.
“The runway will remain closed for resurfacing work from 1600 hrs till next day morning 0500 hrs from Monday to Saturday. There would be no flying operations on Sunday. A review for operating window from 1 April 2018 onwards will be done in the month of February 2018 depending upon the progress of work,” the minutes of the meeting noted, adding that upgradation work, according to IAF, would be completed on August 31, 2019.
When the matter about the land acquisition for extension of runway for parallel taxi track with CAT-III-compliant was discussed during the meeting, a representative of Ministry of Defence explained “that the proposal for parallel taxi track was mooted in 2014 to avoid the closure of airport for about nine months due to recarpeting of the existing runway”.
“However, in January 2016, the plan was changed and the re-carpeting work with ramping method was adopted, which didn’t require the runway closure, but the cost of the work increased by Rs 200 crore. Therefore, the MoD has decided that having spent extra Rs 200 crore on re-carpeting of existing runway, it will not undertake the works for parallel taxi track (PTT) and if it is felt that a PTT is required, the Ministry of Civil Aviation should take up this project,” add the minutes of the meeting.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court during its last hearing of the case had observed that the stand of the Ministry of Defence was contrary to all the correspondence recorded during the previous hearings. According to the minutes of the meeting, the Airports Authority of India said that the present aircraft movement at Chandigarh Airport was only 6-7/hour in peak time and a parallel taxi track was required when there was a significant air-side congestion at the airport which was not the case. “Therefore, a PTT was not justified at Chandigarh Airport, for civilian operations,” read the minutes.
Other issues discussed
Connectivity to Chandigarh International Airport from Chandigarh: IAF has issued entry passes to DMRC for feasibility study.
Making watch towers at the airport functional 24×7: Induction of lower staff has been initiated by IAF.
Renaming of Airport: Governments of Punjab and Haryana to reach common understanding with regard to renaming of the airport.
