The civil aviation sector in Punjab has witnessed both growth, as well as delays and controversies this year.
The state can look forward to improving its growth graph after securing the approval for converting Chandigarh airport into an international airport this year. For setting up the international airport, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Haryana, Punjab and the Airport Authority of India (AAI) on April 4. The two states together hold 49% stake, while AAI has 51% stake in the project. Punjab has already acquired land in Mohali for Rs 460.82 crore and Haryana has paid Rs 230 crore to its neighbour as its share. PricewaterhouseCooper has been appointed a consultant for the project equity, a joint venture company between the three partners?Punjab, Haryana and AAI?will be formed shortly to carry out the construction work.
The Rajasansi International Airport in Amristar, where work for phase-II were on, was in news due to controversy over landing charges. Many airlines threatened to withdraw their flights from the airport as landing charges at Amritsar are much higher than those in Delhi. For instance, Singapore Airlines is charged Rs 1,54,536 if its plane lands at Amritsar, and Rs 75, 163 if it lands in Delhi. Former cricketer and BJP MP Navjot Singh Sidhu took up the matter with civil aviation minister Praful Patel in New Delhi. He demanded that the charges be slashed by 50%.
Talking to FE, Arun Talwar, director Airports Authority of India at Amritsar International Airport said, ?The decision on slashing the landing charges is expected shortly. Besides, the year 2008 was not so good for the aviation sector. Thought of as a boon earlier, India?s aviation sector has slowed down and the global economic meltdown has further aggravated the problems. International passenger growth has remained low during the year. During the period between April and August, the number of international passengers was 1,83,769 against 2,03,932 during the same period last year. There is a decline of 9.9% in international passenger growth. However, on the domestic front, we posted a 33.7% growth during the period of April-August which registered 59,035 passengers as against 44,141 last year during the same period?.
In a bid to revive its sick flying clubs, the state government cleared the proposal to develop them on public-private-partnership mode. But due to the economic recession, in the US, the project failed to take off.
Commenting on the issue, Abhay Chandra, adviser civil aviation, Punjab said, ?The highest bidder for the two flying clubs at Ludhiana and Amritsar bagged by US-based flying school, Indo-American Institute of Aeronautics, has sought time to raise funds before signing the agreement. The institute was supposed to spend Rs 2 crore on each flying club. Now the project will start in mid 2009?. Besides, the year also raised questions over the function of civil aviation department of Punjab when two experienced pilots were killed when a six-seater, the King Air C-90 aircraft, crashed while landing at the Sahnewal airport.
