Former Union Minister and ex-city MP Pawan Kumar Bansal has written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking direct connectivity of Chandigarh and Panchkula to the new International Airport Terminal at Mohali.
Bansal has demanded the connectivity through an underpass below the runway from the road connecting national highway-21 to the recently built but now closed Airport Terminal at Chandigarh.
In his letter, Bansal said that new terminal Building at Chandigarh was completed at a cost of Rs 78 crore and put to operation in April, 2011 after demolition of the old building which had existed ever since the Civil enclave of the Indian Air Force Station was opened in 1970s.
He said, "After the commissioning of the new International Terminal at Mohali in 2015, all services from the newly constructed domestic Terminal at Chandigarh have been discontinued and shifted to the Terminal at Mohali. Presently, the Terminal in Chandigarh is lying completely shut, thus putting to waste enormous government funds. Concomitantly, the shifting of all the operations, domestic and international, to Mohali side has resulted in depriving the union territory of Chandigarh and Panchkula of an easy access to the new Terminal. Instead, and a long, circuitous route has to be followed through a major part of Mohali."
The former Union Minister further wrote, "Since the two Terminals at Chandigarh and Mohali have the common runway that lies in Chandigarh territory, there is a genuine feeling amongst the people of Chandigarh that they should have an easy, direct access to the new Terminal. This can easily be done by building an underground tunnel across the runway from existing road going to the Chandigarh Terminal and continuing across to the other side of the runway.”
“This will entail building a road length of just 920 meters (surface road length 700 meters and underground road length 220 meters). A map delineating this has also been attached with the letter. The Chandigarh Master Plan-2030 also describes this route. An example of such an underpass under the runway exists at Delhi where Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal-I is connected to Terminal-III via a direct road under the runway which is used both for civil and defence purposes," the letter stated. Provision of such a facility at Chandigarh will save a lot of time of residents in approaching the Terminal on Mohali side, Bansal said.