Indian Air Force objects to civil flights at Halwara

Punjab's dream for an international airport in Ludhiana (Halwara) would take much longer to realise than the state was expecting as the proposal is stuck with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) particularly with the Indian Air Force (IAF). There are objections from the IAF over Ministry of Civil Aviation's attempt to bring in a private partner along with the public sector Airports Authority of Indian (AAI) to run the airport at Halwara. The proposal for handing over the IAF base airport for converting it into an international airport was to have come up for the clearance from the Union Cabinet yesterday but was dropped following objections regarding the involvement of a private player. The proposal was to have been cleared at the last meeting of the Union Cabinet also but got shelved following objections from the MoD. Sources in the MoD said that the last time the proposal was shelved as Defence Minister AK Antony took exception to the fact that Cabinet note which had reached him only a few hours before the Cabinet meeting pointed to public-private partnership to build a civil enclave next to a frontline fighter base.

The MoD objected to this public-private partnership model as initially when the IAF had agreed to transfer the fighter base airport for use of civial aviation it was only on the condition of a "government-to-government transfer" basis. But seeing the note with a public-private partnership, the MoD backtracked. Sources said that after getting the note, the Defence Minister initially spoke to the Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt to get not only his views on the model presented forward by the Ministry of Civil Aviation but also to inquire whether he had any knowledge of such proposal forthcoming. He then also spoke to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi on the same lines and even the latter informed him that the IAF no inkling for such a proposal being put forward. Following these inputs, the MoD decided to pull back "for apparent re-think" on the handing over of the Halwara base for a civil aviation airport since it also has base of fighter aircrafts and no private party could be involved near the sensitive base of an IAF.

So, the Rs 275 crore expansion plan for Halwara airport now stands shelved, even though reports suggest that it did come up for discussion at yesterday's Union Cabinet meeting. Apparently the Civil Aviation Ministry is still insisting on involving a private player due to the financial aspects for converting a fighter base into a civil airport. But reports suggested that at least three former Defence Ministers, including Mr Pranab Mukherjee, objected to the involvement of a private player and have said that it would only be transferred on a government-to-government basis. Sources said that only yesterday morning Vice-Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal BN Gokhale, had been called to the MoD for discussions on the Halwara airport and the IAF has sought more time to look at the proposal before giving a final reply. But MoD officials said that if there would be an insistence on the involvement of a private player, the transfer may actually not go through looking at the sensitivity of the frontline fighter air base.

Incidentally, the PMO had taken special interest in the project after the Punjab government made a strong bid to launch the project before the state went to elections. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to have laid the foundation stone for the new airport during his visit to Punjab which began tonight. The Halwara option was arrived at after plans of a Greenfield airport near Ludhiana did not fructify. The plan entails construction of a civil enclave at Halwara that can also accommodate international flights. Work was to commence by July next year and was to conclude in 21 months. Around Rs 205 crore was to be made available through budgetary grant, while the remaining Rs 70 crore was to be provided by the AAI, for which it now wants to involve a private player.

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