It's been nearly nine months since Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the international airport at Chandigarh. The spanking new terminal is a flagship project of the Punjab government and the high court has held numerous hearings and pulled up all concerned over the delay in starting international flights, but to no avail.
The only international flight to land and take off since September 11 last, when the PM inaugurated the new terminal with much fanfare, was that the French President, Francois Hollande, who arrived for a visit to Chandigarh on way to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations his year. The new terminal, built at a total cost of about Rs 1,400 crore, is now being used for operation of over 20 domestic flights daily after the government ordered closure of the old Chandigarh airport complex.
"You are under a misconception that we are begging you to start international flights from the new complex. Just make a statement that international flights cannot be started and we shall see what needs to be done", a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court had told the assistant solicitor general of India, Chetan Mittal, during one of dozens of hearings.
Not just that, the court had been threatening to order return of the land acquired for the construction of the new terminal complex and order a CBI inquiry into the huge waste of public money. It had even summoned the secretary of the civil aviation ministry and chairman of the Airports Authority of India and questioned them. However, no amount of cajoling and threatening government agencies and private airlines, made party to the case, has worked so far.
31/05/16 Vipin Pubby/DailyO
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The only international flight to land and take off since September 11 last, when the PM inaugurated the new terminal with much fanfare, was that the French President, Francois Hollande, who arrived for a visit to Chandigarh on way to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations his year. The new terminal, built at a total cost of about Rs 1,400 crore, is now being used for operation of over 20 domestic flights daily after the government ordered closure of the old Chandigarh airport complex.
"You are under a misconception that we are begging you to start international flights from the new complex. Just make a statement that international flights cannot be started and we shall see what needs to be done", a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court had told the assistant solicitor general of India, Chetan Mittal, during one of dozens of hearings.
Not just that, the court had been threatening to order return of the land acquired for the construction of the new terminal complex and order a CBI inquiry into the huge waste of public money. It had even summoned the secretary of the civil aviation ministry and chairman of the Airports Authority of India and questioned them. However, no amount of cajoling and threatening government agencies and private airlines, made party to the case, has worked so far.
31/05/16 Vipin Pubby/DailyO
