The civil terminal at the Halwara air base in Ludhiana is finally ready to be inaugurated after missing numerous deadlines and years of delay since work began on the airport in 2018.
The terminal will formally be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27, said Ludhiana Deputy Commissioner, Himanshu Jain, quoting information by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
The inaugural date was also confirmed by Sanjeev Arora, Punjab industries minister, who said at a press conference on development projects that flights would be announced later by the airlines.
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However, with necessary permissions still pending, no final date has been announced for the commencement of flight operations. While an Air India employee said that Air India might begin a flight to Delhi, no airline has confirmed flights.
The civil terminal has been built at the Indian Air Force base at Halwara in Raikot subdivision on 162 acres of land given by 272 farmers.
The terminal will only handle one domestic flight with a capacity for 150 passengers that includes arrivals and departures; and no international flights as of now.
Currently, Ludhiana is connected by air only with Ghaziabad (Hindon airport), with FlyBig operating one flight from the Sahnewal airport, six days a week.
Being an industrial hub, its residents, including businesspeople and industrialists, had to travel to Delhi, Jalandhar, Amritsar or Chandigarh airports to fly to other destinations.
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