Shorter route to airport from Chandigarh: Take up issue with Punjab on priority, panel to MHA

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

For a shorter route to the international airport from Chandigarh, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs has asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to take up the issue on a priority basis with the stakeholders.

In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha, the committee mentioned that the existing route from Tribune Chowk to the Chandigarh international airport is causing unnecessary inconvenience to the residents of Chandigarh as they have to cover more distance and spend more time to reach the airport.

The committee recommended that the MHA may take up this matter with the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Defence on a priority basis to connect the old and new terminal through an underpass below the existing runway to make it convenient for people travelling to the airport.

Alternatively, the committee further recommended that the MHA may coordinate with the Government of Punjab for making provision of approximately 4.7-km road through Jagatpura village for the airport, which will reduce the distance to the airport by about 10 km and will save the time of a large number of people travelling to the airport from Chandigarh.

UT Adviser Dharam Pal had recently directed the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and the UT Chief Engineer to prepare a report on alternative shorter routes to the international airport from Chandigarh.

The Adviser asked the officials to submit the report on the options available for the shorter routes to the airport after studying the ground situation.

Earlier, the road distance from Tribune Chowk to the airport was 2.71 km, but people have to now cover an extra distance of 14.5 km to reach the airport through Mohali.

People have been demanding an alternative route, which will make it easier and shorter for residents of Chandigarh and Haryana to reach the airport.

The recommendation

The committee recommended that the MHA may take up the matter with the Ministries of Civil Aviation and Defence on a priority basis to connect the old and new terminal through an underpass below the existing runway to make it convenient for people travelling to the airport.