IAF withdraws order proposing complete closure
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Feb 20: Following intervention of the Ministry of Defence on the request of J&K Union Territory administration, the Indian Air Force has withdrawn its earlier order proposing complete closure of the Jammu Airport for 15 days for resurfacing work of the runway even as the flight operations would be restricted to seven hours for 41 days from March 10.
Now the Jammu Airport will be available for operations from 6 AM to 1 PM with last flight departure at 12.50 hrs from 10th of March 2021 to 19th of April 2021. With effect from April 20, the Jammu Airport will be available for operations as per earlier normal watch hours.
Decision in this regard was taken after detailed deliberations during a meeting held between IAF and Airport Authority of India (Member Operations and team) following instructions from the Defence Ministry.
A day earlier, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar chaired a joint meeting of IAF and AAI at South Block, New Delhi and advised to find a way out to avoid complete closure of the airport for civilian traffic after the Civil Aviation Ministry raised the issue with him at the request of Jammu and Kashmir administration.
As exclusively reported by the Excelsior, the J&K administration had strongly resented the proposed complete closure of Jammu Airport from March 6, 2021 to March 20, 2021 for laying of the final two top DAC-II layers on the runway surface. In a communication addressed to Jammu Airport Director, the Air Force Station Jammu had wanted complete closure of the airport for 15 days from March 6 for resurfacing work of the runway.
Chief Secretary J&K, B V R Subrahmanyam had formally lodged protest with the Civil Aviation Ministry and requested intervention of the Ministry of Defence in the matter to ensure that the resurfacing is carried out in such a manner that civilian air traffic is not affected during the day time.
Pertinent to mention that Jammu Airport is used by commercial airlines besides serving the requirements of Indian Air Force. This being the only civil airport in Jammu division, it caters to the requirement of civilian air traffic for the entire province and serves as the only connecting airport for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine.
During the meeting to discuss the issue, official sources said the Defence Secretary also stated that complete closure of the airport would cause not only inconvenience to the common public but also a disruption in the efforts towards the sustained connectivity of UT of J&K with rest of India.
With these observations and explaining the background of the issue, Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar said that all the available options need to be explored.
Even as Lt Gen Harpal Singh from E-in-C, IHQ of MoD, stated that carrying out the works as proposed by the administration of J&K UT and Ministry of Civil Aviation may have a bearing on the quality and life of pavement due to technicalities involved and hence the work was needed to be done during daytime, representatives from AAI said they had carried out similar runway surfacing works in different work- spells as well as during night time at various locations and there have been no complaints.
As compressing operational hours for flight clearances at the airport by AAI also emerged as one of the options, the meet decided that a joint committee of IAF, MES and AAI will work out a feasible and mutually acceptable plan which could avoid complete closure of the airport to the extent possible.
Consequent upon the decision of this meeting, detailed deliberations were held yesterday between IAF and AAI and it was evolved that the Jammu Airport will be available for operation from 6 AM to 1 PM during March 10 to April 19, this year.
“The proposed complete closure for 15 days from March 6 is withdrawn and the Jammu Airport Authority has been requested to revise file slots accordingly for ongoing W-20 and S-21 season at the earliest,” said P R Beuria- Director Jammu Airport, adding that the airport will be available for operations as per earlier norms watch hours with effect from April 20, 2021.
It may be recalled that similar decision for complete closure of the Jammu Airport was also taken by the IAF several months back but following stiff opposition from the J&K Government and AAI, the plan had to be shelved. At that time, the Government had told the IAF to carry out the work only during night hours as complete closure of airport for several days would create immense problems for the passengers, tourists and administration.
At present, there are 17 scheduled civil flights operating from Jammu Airport with connectivity to Ahmedabad, Delhi, Leh, Mumbai and Srinagar.
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