30 months after approval, construction work for Mohali airport yet to begin

Mohali It’s been 30 months since a formal approval was given to the international airport in Mohali, but construction is yet to begin.
Except a boundary wall, no other construction work has been done, as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has not given the mandatory permission to the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
“Construction of the boundary wall was taken up to secure the land transferred for the project. This should not be construed as commencement of the project,” AAI General Manager (Planning) Piyush Joshi said in reply to an RTI query.
For the airport, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) had handed over 305 acres of land in Jheourheri village to the AAI in September 2008.
Joshi said a ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) was given by the MoD in January 2008, when AAI had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Punjab and Haryana to construct the airport.
But a separate NOC or working permission is required before starting construction work at defence airports. “This working permission/NOC is still awaited from MoD,” Joshi said.
The airport will be an extension of the existing Chandigarh domestic airport, which is built on defence land and is used by the Indian Air Force.
22/06/10 Nitin Jain/Express India

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Categories: Airports Jun 2010, New Jun 2010