Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 23: The much-talked about expansion of Jammu Airport finally crossed all the hurdles with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and State Government resolving all the vital issues in a recent meeting held at Union Capital. With this positive development, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) is all set to receive working permission within next few days.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that responding to the Chief Secretary Madhav Lal’s communication addressed to the Defence Secretary seeking early decision on the vital issues, which were creating hurdles in the start of work on expansion of Jammu Airport, the Ministry of Defence called a meeting of all the stakeholders on December 21 at Union Capital.
The meeting was chaired by Joint Secretary, Ministry of Defence and attended by concerned officers of Army, Indian Air Force (IAF), Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airport Authority of India (AAI), Principal Secretary to State Chief Minister, B B Vyas, who is also Principal Secretary State Civil Aviation Department and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Pardeep Gupta.
In the meeting, threadbare discussion took place on both the vital issues—one pertaining to re-construction of utilities on the alternate land to be provided to the Army at Sunjwan in lieu of the land being taken over by the State Government for expansion of Jammu Airport runway and second relating to alignment of 132 KV electricity transmission line, sources said.
Stating that both the issues were mutually resolved in the meeting, sources said, “the State Government has agreed that it will recreate those utilities of the Army, which will be razed on the land adjoining the airport, at alternate land at Sunjwan within the specified time-frame”, adding “as far as shifting of 132 KV electricity transmission line is concerned, it was agreed in the meeting that certain relaxations in the norms will be given keeping in view the practical difficulties being faced by the State Government to meet the laid down criteria”.
As per the norms there is prohibition on passing of any electricity transmission line within three kilometers from the runway of airport but the State Government is finding it difficult to fulfill this norm because of River Tawi. The Government has conveyed to the Ministry of Defence that it would take the 132 KV electricity transmission line far away from the present location but by all means the new alignment will pass through area within three kilometers from the runway.
In response to a question, sources said, “now, the Ministry of Defence has to just convey its decision on both the vital issues in writing and the same is expected shortly”, adding “in the meantime, Airport Authority of India would be given working permission in order to facilitate it to start different sorts of activities, which are pre-requisite to formally start expansion work”.
About the shifting of other utilities, which doesn’t require permission from any quarter and fall exclusively in the domain of State Government, sources said, “the funds for re-alignment of distributory of canal and road have already been earmarked and the land acquisition process completed”, adding “as both the vital issues have been resolved with the Army, the State Government would start work on re-alignment of canal and road on war footing”.
The prestigious project is aimed at expanding the length of runway of Jammu airport by 1300 feet from existing length of 6700 feet in order to pave the way for landing and take off of planes with full load and capacity. Moreover, some terminal buildings would also be constructed for better facilities.
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