Centre gives proposed international airport at Mohali the go-ahead
07 Sep 2007
India's central government gave its clearance to the Punjab government's proposal for an international airport in Mohali on Thursday 6 September. This was announced by the working president of Punjab's ruling Shiromani Akali Dal, Sukhbir Singh Badal, on Friday 7 September.
Badal said the clearance was given at a special meeting in the prime minister's office, and the centre had agreed to a 49:51 stake sharing between the Punjab government and the centre, respectively.
The Punjab government has already announced that the new international airport in Mohali would be named after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. The infrastructure of the existing civilian terminal at the Chandigarh air force base, where the airport will be located, will be integrated into the proposed international airport.
The state government has also proposed setting up a civil aviation university to equip and train the personnel in the aviation field, which is booming and has a tremendous employment potential.
It has already cleared proposals to set up three flying training schools at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Bhatinda through public-private partnership (PPP), apart from upgrading the infrastructure at the Patiala Flying Training Academy.