Chandigarh airport to re-open on Tuesday

The Chandigarh International Airport will re-open for air traffic on Tuesday (Feb 27), airport officials said on Saturday.

The airport, which was closed from February 12 to 26 to carry out runway expansion and repairs, will have regular flights, including international ones, re-starting on Tuesday.

President Ram Nath Kovind, who is scheduled to visit the city on Tuesday in connection with the Golden Jubilee of a leading girls' college, will also land at the airport on Tuesday afternoon, officials said.

The airport is likely to remain closed again in May this year to complete the runway expansion and repair work.

The expansion will allow the airport to cater to wide-bodied and bigger aircraft, particularly to and from international destinations, in future.

The 15-day closure of the airport, from February 12 to 26, roughly affected over 60,000 passengers.

Airport CEO Sunil Dutt said the runway was being upgraded to increase its length from 9,000 feet to 10,400 feet to enable operation of wide-bodied aircraft. This would better enable air carriers to connect the city with destinations in Europe, the US and Australia in the future.

The airport is a defence facility and is controlled by the Indian Air Force which operates a transport squadron here. Commercial flights use the same runway at this airport, which handles nearly 30 commercial flights daily, including international flights to Dubai, Sharjah and Bangkok.

The city is linked to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Srinagar, Jaipur and a few other cities in the domestic circuit.The nearest civilian airports to Chandigarh are Delhi and Amritsar - both around 250 km away.

--IANS

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