Chandigarh airport ready for take-off as Army agrees to hand over land

Chandigarh: The Ministry of Defence has agreed to part with its 5.10 acres of Army land, clearing the bottleneck in the construction of the international airport.
The Chandigarh Administration is compensating the Army with an equal chunk in the contiguous area. The N-Area will be handed over to the Airport Authority of India.
In a letter to UT Finance Secretary Sanjay Kumar, the Joint Secretary, Defence, Anand Mishra, has mentioned that the Army is ready to part with the land if compensated suitably.
Earlier too, the Chandigarh Administration had decided to compensate the Army. But the latter had refused as the land was about 200 meters away from their cantonment.
The 5.10 acres will increase the hangar capacity at the airport from two aircraft to almost seven. Though the airport is expected to be operational by the next year, officials maintain that international flights will begin take-offs much before that.
23/02/08 Jyotsna Jalali/Chandigarh Newsline

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, New Feb 2008