Airport set for international flights

Chandigarh: Tricity residents can now expect to board international flights from here itself as the matter of who would handle immigration facility at the local airport has finally been resolved. Airports Authority of India (AAI) has entrusted the task to Chandigarh police. International flights are expected to start here in June.
Management of immigration was the biggest hurdle for international flights in the city as AAI was unable to decide who would handle it.
In July 2010, the proposed Chandigarh-Dubai had to be cancelled as security staff and immigration facility was not available here. At present, people from Tricity either have to travel to Amritsar or Delhi or take international flights. Senior officials in Chandigarh police said usually it was the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that looked after immigration work at Indian airports, but it was not able to do that here as it was short of staff.
A senior police official said Tricity residents would directly benefit from this because details of people holding passports and visas from the area were already with foreign registration office (FRO) branch of UT police. The decision of giving UT cops this task was taken last week at the meeting between senior officials from Chandigarh and Punjab police, IB, customs and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and local officials of AAI.
21/05/11 Saurabh Prashar/Times of India

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Categories: Airports May 2011