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Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 24
Even as the renovation work of the Adampur airport is near completion and bids have been invited from the airline companies to resume domestic flights, the ongoing four-laning work of the approach road is likely to take another 10 months to complete.
As of date, the commuters will have to take a longer detour via several villages to reach the civil airport. The PWD has started the work on the road, but it is going at slow pace owing to a lengthy land acquisition process.
As many as 60 acres of land is being acquired from Kandola and Damunda villages under compulsory acquisition for the purpose. The plan had got underway in 2019 during the Congress regime and ex-Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had announced to name the airport approach road from Adampur to Mehtiana as Sri Guru Ravidas Airport Road.
The 5.3-km road is being widened to make it four-lane with each side 7.25 m wide with a central verge of 1.5 m breadth. PWD Executive Engineer BS Tuli, who is supervising this work, said: “We may be able to start just one side of this road by April 30. Both sides will be operational by September 30 next.”
SDM-1 Jai Inder Singh said: “We cannot squeeze the acquisition process as all steps are to be scheduled in a timeframe. We have got the social impact assessment done and a report has been sent to the PWD for acceptance and issuing of the notification.”
Jalandhar MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh said he would take up the issue of quickly resuming flights from Jalandhar as the businessmen of Doaba are pressing for it for a long time. “I will take up the matter with the ministry concerned as Parliament session starts next month. I have learnt though that the bids have already been invited for the purpose,” he said.
Flights from the civil airport were discontinued during Covid times. Spice Jet, which had been running Jalandhar-Delhi and Jalandhar-Jaipur flights, backed out later.
Adampur legislator Sukhwinder Kotli said: “For the convenience of the passengers, it is more important that the pending work of Jalandhar-Hoshiarpur road and Adampur airport approach road gets completed quickly. Everyone needs a free, smooth passage to catch a flight.”
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