Tewari bats for using old Chandigarh airport as second terminal
Chandigarh member of Parliament Manish Tewari has written to the Union aviation ministry to take cognisance of the matter, terming the old airport as gross wastage of public money
Extensively renovated between 2010 and 2014 over a considerable cost, the old terminal of the Chandigarh airport is lying unused ever since the new airport was inaugurated on the Mohali side in 2015.
Chandigarh member of Parliament Manish Tewari has written to the Union aviation ministry to take cognisance of the matter, terming the old airport as gross wastage of public money.
“I urge new civil aviation minister KR Naidu to take cognisance of this gross wastage of public money and make the old Chandigarh airport operational,” said Tewari in a tweet.
Tewari, while talking to HT, elaborated how the old airport can be put to use. He said the old airport can be converted into another terminal on lines of the Delhi airport, which has three terminals located some distance away. “In the case of Chandigarh also, there can be a Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Some flights can come to Terminal 1 and other flights to Terminal 2. Over a period of time, if international flights from Chandigarh increase, then one terminal can be a dedicated international terminal, depending upon the number of flights which are emanating from Chandigarh. The moot point is there is a terminal which was renovated and unfortunately disused. Rather than wasting public money, it should be operationalised,” he said.
“The two terminals can be connected by a shuttle bus. In case, more international flights are added, more domestic flights can be diverted to the old airport terminal,” he said.
Elaborating further, Tewari said on Saturday evening, he went to Behlana village for a thanksgiving function. “One of the residents of the village brought up the issue of the disused original terminal of the Chandigarh airport that has unfortunately gone to seed, leading to gross wastage of public resources,” he said.
“On September 11, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated the new Chandigarh airport and since then the extensively renovated old Chandigarh airport has been lying virtually abandoned,” he said.
Tewari also stated that in 2019, in response to a Parliament question asked by him, the government claimed no money was spent on renovating the old Chandigarh airport building, which was simply not correct. He said he had told the then aviation minister about the same. As per the information received, every month the Airport Authority of India spends over ₹12 lakh for the maintenance and upkeep charges of the old airport in Chandigarh ever since it shut down nine years ago.
It was then stated by the then aviation minister that the old Chandigarh airport complex has not been abandoned and is being used for providing communication and navigation services (CNS) facilities, Upper Airspace Harmonisation (UAH) project, aviation multi skill development centre, etc.
The new airport — Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport — is located in Jhiurheri, Mohali, and shares space with the Indian Air Force. The airport caters to 17 domestic destinations and two international destinations.