Arora meets Secretary Civil Aviation; Approvals accorded by AAI for pending works of Halwara Airport

Ludhiana, October 15, 2023: MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora has highly appreciated the Civil Aviation Secretary, Vumlunmang Vualnam, for acceding to his request to give approvals to pending works of the upcoming International Airport at Halwara, near here. He said now stuck work will start from Monday. 

“It is really a matter of delight that acceding to my request the Civil Aviation Secretary has already given approval to some of the works and has also assured to give approval to the pending works in the near future”, said Arora in a statement here today. He had met the Secretary in Delhi recently. At the same time, he has also thanked Sanjeev Kumar, Chairman, Airports Authority of India (AAI), for always extending his support in further expediting the pending project of the Halwara Airport.   

He said he has been reviewing the progress of the project on regular basis. He hoped that the ongoing construction work has already reached the advanced stage of completion. About 93 per cent of the work of the mega project is already completed and the remaining work is going to get another push after approvals by the Civil Aviation Secretary. It may be mentioned here that so far Rs.74.30 Crore have been spent on construction of the Halwara Airport. This total expenditure includes, Rs.40.67 Crore on land acquisition, Rs.8.17 Crore on approach road, Rs. 3.01 Crore on boundary wall, and Rs.20 crore on construction. 

Arora said several components of the ongoing work to construct a new integrated civil enclave and cargo terminal at Air Force Station in Halwara. He added the approvals were lying pending with the Ministry for a long time. He said the Civil Aviation Ministry has granted approval to start work as per the provided crust or designs of peripheral road, apron, and taxiway. He revealed that the Punjab Government had requested many times for early grant of these permissions, which were required to undertake work on these components. The case of granting approvals was lying pending at the level of member planning. With regard to widening of internal taxiways (A and D), the AAI has recommended two options to the IAF for seeking consent before granting formal approval for the same. Arora said the Punjab Government had been urging the AAI to get any one option finalised at the earliest to initiate the work on the same. He said now on his request the Civil Aviation Secretary has assured him that this case would also be expedited and the requisite approval for the same would be granted very shortly.

He said the components of balance works, including apron and taxiway have been completed 35 per cent each, while internal roads, lighting and public health works have touched the 55 per cent mark. The work on the approach road to the airport campus and bridge at the entry of the approach road has also been started. While the approach road has been completed 20 per cent, the bridge construction has touched the 5 per cent mark.

Further, Arora said the Civil Aviation Secretary, Vumlunmang Vualnam has also assured him that he would take up the matter with the Airlines to start international flights from the Halwara Airport once the project is fully completed. He said now days are nearing when dream project of Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann is going to get a practical shape. Thus, Ludhiana will be on international air map, which will be beneficially for overall economy of not only for Ludhiana but also for whole of Punjab.