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Runway upgrade: Chandigarh airport to remain closed again from May 14 to 28
Closing time to be extended till 5:30pm from March 25, will help operate 10 more flights; Sunday closure to continue
Chandigarh Flight operations that will resume after a two-week break on February 26 will again be suspended for the same period from May 14 to 28.
The Centre also informed the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday that the curtailed operational times will be relaxed by an hour and a half from March 25.
At present, civil operations end at 4pm at the airport. With the time being extended to 5:30pm, at least 10 more flights will be able to operate from here. However, the airport will continue to remain closed on Sundays to facilitate the contractor to complete the upgrade work, the court was told.
Assistant solicitor general Chetan Mittal informed the court that the second window of airport closure was earlier scheduled after July 2018.
“As progress on upgrade of runway has been satisfactory, this closure window has been advanced in view of tourist season in June-July,” he said, adding that different stakeholders, including airlines, have been taken into confidence.
Operations at the airport were suspended from February 12 to 26 for runway upgrade, which started in October last year.
Work on parallel taxi track to begin soon
The HC was hearing a petition on infrastructural deficiencies at the international airport, filed in December 2015. The international airport terminal was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2015. However, international flights started in September 2016.
The airport operates 28 flights, three of them to Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok. The remaining operate on the domestic circuit between Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Leh, Jammu and Jaipur. Ten flights cater to Delhi alone with an average load of 750-800 passengers a day.
The runway is being upgraded to increase its length from 9,000 feet to 10,400 feet to enable operation of wide-bodied aircraft, which will enable air carriers to connect the city with destinations in Europe, the US and Australia.
Mittal also informed the court that work on a parallel taxi track will start soon. “The Phase I can be started soon as it does not require additional land acquisition. For the second phase, 40 acre of land is required, which is to be given by the UT and Punjab,” he said.
‘Top landing system okayed, no fog worries next winter’
Aeroplanes will be able to fly in zero visibility at the Chandigarh international airport next winter. Cancellation of flights has become a norm during winters. Assistant solicitor general Chetan Mittal Mittal informed the high court that the Airport Authority of India and Indian Air Force have in principal agreed to equip the runway with CAT-IIIB instrument landing system (ILS).
At present, the airport has a basic CAT-IBS ILS that does not allow landing if the visibility drops below 1,000 metres. “The project will be funded by the AAI. We are expecting the CAT-IIIB facility to be in place by October,” Mittal said.
ILS is a navigation system that has approach lights, touchdown and centerline lights on the runway. It aids pilot to see the runway surface while landing in case weather hinders vision. It has varying degrees. For instance, having CAT-IIIB ILS effectively means an all-weather airport.
Earlier in September 2016, the Centre had said that the runway could not be upgraded as the air force had certain vital installations that it can’t remove and a parallel runway was needed for the CAT-III B facility. However, now the air force has agreed to remove the installations.