Thursday, May 24, 2018

Administration gears up for Bhuntar airstrip expansion

The district administration has initiated steps to submit a report related to the expansion of the Bhuntar airport runway. A team of officers reviewed the land around the airport to seek feasibility of its expansion.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, during his sojourn in Kullu and Manali, had talked about the proposal to expand the runway after which the administration has started its preparations for the feasibility report related to land acquisition for the expansion of the runway.
Kullu SDM Amit Guleria said the land required to expand the runway by 300 metres in the first phase of expansion was reviewed. The administration had started preparations to send its report to the state government and the airport authorities after selecting the land. He added that the land would also be marked on the banks of the Beas using modern machinery.
The airport authorities also conducted surveys through IIT-Roorkee for the expansion of the runway.
Kullu Airport Director AA Ansari said there was proposal to expand the runway by 660 metre as per the report of the IIT engineers. He said there was a proposal to increase the length of the runway from 1,052 metres to 1,712 metres. The course of the Beas would also have to be altered to acquire the land.
Due to the short runway, the 70-seat ATR-72 aircraft, being used by Air-India on the Kullu and Delhi route, is allowed to ferry around 20 passengers from Kullu due to load stipulation. The airlines, therefore, charges a hefty fare and the seats are not available during the peak summer season by even spending over Rs 20,000 for the one-way travel.
24/05/18 Abhinav Vashisht/Tribune
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