Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Aug 20: Following approval of the design for new state of art facilities loaded Jammu Airport with almost three times enhanced capacity from the existing one, ongoing work on expansion of Jammu Airport is all set to gain momentum for timely completion of Rs 9,000 crore project by 2026.
Besides building a strong, sustainable and future-ready aviation infrastructure to cater to the needs in the next 10-15 years, the project includes expansion of the Jammu Airport from 14,500 square meters area to 40,000 square meters towards Belicharana with entry and exit points towards fourth Tawi Bridge in Bhagwati Nagar.
Official sources told the Excelsior that work on raising boundary wall around the new Airport complex land has been completed and the construction activities on main building are likely to commence by next month.
Issues related to land acquisition and drainage system, which were pending earlier, have been sorted out while work on dismantling of the abandoned old structures and cutting of trees is going on, sources added.
While elaborating, sources said that the capacity of modernised airport will be almost three times of the existing one to handle a rush of passengers in the near future and the new building of the terminal will come up under five star rating. The building will have 36 check-in counters, six aerobridges, aprons, 16 self check-in kiosks, 11 security check lanes and an apron for parking 13 code C-aircraft, sources added.
At present, seven aircrafts can be parked at a time but with expansion of the airport in the first phase, 13 will be parked in one go and this facility will be increased in the second phase.
Presently, 30 to 35 flights are operating on daily basis at Jammu airport and with the new terminals and added aircrafts, the operation will be enhanced, including the night operations, which are lingering on due to shortage of aircrafts.
According to the sources, the new state-of-art Jammu Airport infrastructure having all facilities on the pattern of Mumbai and Delhi Airports, will be ready by December 2026. Once the new Airport building becomes operational, the existing one will either render non-functional or used for cargo etc as it will not be merged with the new one, sources added.
As per the design of the new Airport building , which was approved by the Ministry of Civil Aviation last month, it will look like a temple shaped structure.
With an enhanced capacity of almost three times of the existing infrastructure, the new state of the art Airport building will cater the rush of visitors and boost the economy of Jammu and Kashmir as the rush of visitors in Jammu is swelling day by day and expansion of Jammu Airport was much needed. The industrial and tourism sectors are understood to get a boost with the new facilities as cargo carrier aircraft will also operate from Jammu Airport to facilitate the import and export of goods.
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