Tribune press service

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, April 23

In order to reduce travel time, the UT administration is considering building a tunnel as a shorter and better route to the international airport.

To significantly reduce travel distance, UT Advisor Dharam Pal said they have finalized two options for a shorter alternate route to the international airport from Sector 48.

He said the first option would be to build a road from junction 63 (the intersection of point T on the Vikas Marg of Tribune Chowk) to the airport via Faidan village for which they were to build a tunnel over the path which would connect to the airport road at Mohali. It would be a shorter and better route to reach the airport from Chandigarh, he said.

Dharam Pal said the second option would be construction of a road from the Sector 48 side which would pass through the villages of Faidan and Jagatpura and connect to the airport road along the airport boundary. However, as there will be two blind 90 degree turns on this route, this was not advised for commuter safety and would also be slightly longer than the tunnel route.

For the construction of the tunnel, the adviser said that they need to hold meetings with the ministries of defense and aviation and after getting approval from the central government, work on the tunnel could start. Sources said that the UT administration will hold talks with the Punjab government for the acquisition of land falling in Jagatpura village for the construction of a wide road.

In December last year, the councilor asked the DC and UT’s chief engineer to prepare a report on alternative, shorter routes to the international airport.

To reduce the road distance, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had recently decided to conduct a feasibility study on connectivity to the airport on the Purv Marg side near Sector 48.

In its previous recommendations, the committee said it was aware that a short access road to the airport had been functional in the past. “But now about 30 more km have to be walked because the entrance has been moved to the other side,” the panel said. In response to the committee’s recommendations, the MHA argued that three alternative approaches were suggested in the Chandigarh Master Plan, 2031. These alternatives were discussed in various meetings which did not come to a conclusion.

The plan under consideration

UT Councilor Dharam Pal said the first option would be to construct a road from Junction 63 (the intersection of point T on the Vikas Marg of Tribune Chowk) to the airport via Faidan village for which they were to build a tunnel on the way which would connect to the airport road at Mohali. It would be a shorter and better route to reach the airport.