International flights from Chd airport to start in Aug

The international flights from the Chandigarh-Mohali international airport would be operational from August 2009 and security personnel and X-Ray machines, and other infrastructure would be installed during this month.

This was disclosed by Punjab Chief Secretary S C Aggarwal during a high-level meeting held here today for providing required facilities at the airport.

He said that to facilitate the late night international flight operations, the officers of Airport Authority of India had been directed to extend watch hours of air traffic controller (ATC) up to midnight.

He added that Chief Minister Punjab Parkash Singh Badal had already taken up the matter with Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to direct the Air Force authorities to extend ATC watch hours by one for international flight operations.

He added that flydubai Airlines intended to start international operations from this airport in July but owing to the delay in installation of required infrastructure at the airport, the international flights would now be made operational from August.

The chief secretary said that the international airport would cater to the needs of passengers belonging to Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal.

He added that the security personnel would be provided by the Punjab government whereas computer and X-ray machines would be installed by the Chandigarh administration and Airport Authority of India respectively.

The bus services connecting the inter-state bus terminus at Chandigarh would be provided by the Chandigarh administration.