Ludhiana: It will take about 2 more months for flights to start from Halwara International Airport located in Raikot town, about 31 km from Ludhiana city of Punjab. The officials associated with it suggested that the work of the project will not be completed even this month and it is expected that by new year the Halwara Airport will be operational.
Many deadlines for this project, which the PWD department is implementing through construction agencies, have already expired. The airport can be opened to the public by the end of December. Domestic flights will start in the first phase.
A 172-seater aircraft will be able to land easily here. The airport built in Halwara is spread over 161.28 acres. The terminal area built in this area is 2,000 square meters. The total project cost excluding land is about Rs 70 crore.
90 percent of the work has been completed by the PWD. Now 10 percent of the work is yet to be done by the Indian Air Force. This work is taking time due to security reasons. Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann has already released Rs 50 crore to complete the construction work of the state-of-the-art civil air terminal in Halwara soon.
It is worth noting that the plan to build an airport in Ludhiana was passed in 2007. In 2010, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to lay its foundation stone, but for some reason, despite all the preparations, this work could not be done.