Dehradun: Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami made a courtesy call on Union Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu in New Delhi and congratulated and wished him on assuming the responsibility of Union Minister, Civil Aviation Ministry.
The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to give approval to the Airports Authority of India to start the process of expansion of Pantnagar Airport as soon as possible and direct the concerned.
The Chief Minister said that due to the short runway located in Pantnagar of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand, it is not possible to land big aircraft at this airport, for which the airport has to be expanded by increasing the runway. The Chief Minister said that the length of the runway of the airport is currently 1372 meters, which is to be increased to 3000 meters. The Chief Minister said that for the expansion of the airport, the state government has currently acquired a total of 804.0162 acres or 325.5126 hectares of land of various departments and National Highway SIDCUL. Out of which 212.4868 (524.78 acres) of land has been transferred to the Civil Aviation Department.
The Chief Minister also requested the Union Minister to request the Ministry of Forest and Environment regarding the transfer of 87.0815 hectares of land of the Forest Department for the expansion of Jolly Grant Airport located in Dehradun and to grant permission to start work on the expansion.
The Chief Minister said that the tender process for operating air service from Jolly Grant Airport to Kathmandu (Nepal) has been completed. In view of which, there is an urgent need to speed up the process of giving international airport status to Jolly Grant Airport.
The Chief Minister said that there is no obstacle in transferring 87.0815 hectares of forest department land to the Civil Aviation Ministry for airport expansion as per the decision passed by the Hon’ble High Court.
The Chief Minister said that the process of obtaining no objection certificate for the land falling under the purview of NTRO adjacent to the airport boundary is in progress for expansion.
The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister regarding the establishment of ATC at Kedarnath Dham and Sahastradhara Helidrome of Dehradun and informed that at present there are three airports in Uttarakhand where air traffic service including VHF communication is available. However, due to VHF communication system being a line of sight communication system and the mountainous geographical conditions of the state, most of the areas of Uttarakhand are still not covered by this system. In view of this, air traffic control should be established at Kedarnath Dham and Sahastradhara Helidrome. The Chief Minister informed that under the Uttarakhand Air Connectivity Scheme, Alliance Air has agreed to operate Delhi-Pithoragarh-Delhi flights to the state’s border town Pithoragarh. The state government has obtained a 2C category license for the airport. The Chief Minister said that simulator training is necessary for pilots to operate ATR 42 aircraft. He requested the Union Minister to direct the concerned department to get Alliance Air to start the simulator training process soon.
