Almost five months after former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar laid the foundation stone of the domestic airport in Ambala Cantonment, the Union ministry of defence (MoD) has granted working permission to the Haryana civil aviation department for the use of defence land to connect the civil enclave with the apron of the Indian Air Force (IAF) station.
This allows for mutual use of the existing road within the IAF station to take passengers on a bus from the terminal till the aircraft apron, a senior official, on the condition of anonymity, said.
In its communication on March 22, the MoD wrote to the officials of the defence estate, army and state government, sharing the sanction by the President of India, allowing use of defence land, measuring 0.63 acre, on licence basis.
It said initially, the licence will be given for a period of five years, with effect from the date of taking over of the land, with provision for renewal every five years on payment of annual licence fee of ₹2,550 to the defence estates officer (DEO) of Ambala to be further deposited in Consolidated Funds of India.
The official quoted above said following this, a separate Board of Officers (BOO), including officials from the IAF, civil aviation and district administration, will be formed for demarcation of land, to ascertain the exact area, cost of land, present use of land, security and safety measures and cost of their demolition, relocation or reconstruction, etc., before handing over the defence land.
{{/usCountry}}The official quoted above said following this, a separate Board of Officers (BOO), including officials from the IAF, civil aviation and district administration, will be formed for demarcation of land, to ascertain the exact area, cost of land, present use of land, security and safety measures and cost of their demolition, relocation or reconstruction, etc., before handing over the defence land.
{{/usCountry}}The BOO will complete the proceedings within four weeks from issuance of the working permission and in case there is variation in area, revised sanction of MoD will be required to be obtained, the MoD letter said.
Under the permission, the MoD said the said land will be mutually used by the IAF and Haryana civil aviation department with only right of access and use of road, along with its maintenance at their own expense, while the ownership of the land will remain with the defence authorities.
This was the second major approval from the Union government after it permitted use of 20 acres of defence land for ₹133 crore just next to the IAF station, where the terminal was being built, the official said.
The civil enclave, as it is called, was sanctioned under the RCS-UDAN 3.0 scheme of the Union government, and the IAF air strip will be used for flight operations.
Situated nearly 50 km away from Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport of Mohali, the project here was approved in December 2018. But it remained in limbo for several years, primarily due to land-related issues near the strategically important IAF base with Rafale aircraft.