The Ghaziabad district magistrate on Wednesday directed officials of various departments to expedite work in order to make regional flight operations from the Hindon airbase operational by February 15. The DM, during an inspection of terminal facilities being developed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), said the deadline for completion of all civil works is January 31.

As part of the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme (RCS), regional flights will operate from the Hindon airbase and the project is nearing completion. District magistrate Ritu Maheshwari on Wednesday carried out a detailed inspection of the terminal facilities and reviewed all civil works being carried out by Uttar Pradesh agencies.

“The earlier deadline was January 31 but some works were pending. After review, we have directed that all works, required to make the facility operational, should be completed by February 15. After they are ready, the remaining works, such as utilities and beautification, can be expedited,” Maheshwari said.

The AAI is carrying out construction of terminal facilities for which the work is on at Sikandarpur, adjacent to the Hindon airbase. The project is aimed at operating regional flights in order to decongest the Delhi airport.

“Officials of the AAI said they are expecting to get the work done by February 15. Since only about 100 labourers are deployed, we have asked them to rope in more workers to finish work at the earliest. The other departments of the state have also been directed to complete their respective work as per the deadline,” she added.

Under the renewed directions, the public works department (PWD) has been asked to complete the approach road to the terminal by January 15 while the electricity department has been directed to complete the electricity supply infrastructure works by January 15.

“The approach road is about 680 metres and we will be able to complete it by January 15. From our side, the work is 50% complete. We have sought three-four more days for laying bitumen layer on the road as the temperature at present is low,” an officer from the PWD, not authorised to speak to the media, said.

Likewise, the officials of the municipal corporation have been told to complete the works for streetlights by January 15. The horticulture department of the corporation has also been directed to carry out beautification work on the entry roads and nearby areas by February 10.

The entire work for facilities is being carried out on nearly 22,000 square metre of land at Sikandarpur village. The AAI is developing terminal facilities while UP agencies have been tasked with providing other infrastructure facilities under a MoU signed earlier between the state government and the AAI.

First Published: Jan 03, 2019 12:48 IST