MoD sees red in AAI’s model for Halwara airport project

The plan to convert the military airfield in Halwara into an international civilian airport for nearby Ludhiana, despite the UPA Government’s politically effervescent push, is back to square one.

The plan to convert the military airfield in Halwara into an international civilian airport for nearby Ludhiana, despite the UPA Government’s politically effervescent push, is back to square one. The Indian Air Force and Airports Authority of India (AAI) are now diverging on the model for investment in the project. With elections in Punjab round the corner, the project had been strongly backed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the state government.

The proposal, which was to receive the Prime Minister’s nod during his visit to the state this week, is understood to have been dropped from his schedule, much to the Punjab Government’s disappointment. The proposal was left uncleared by a Cabinet meeting in which Defence Minister AK Antony indicated that AAI’s intention to use the public private partnership (PPP) model was not previously known — something AAI officials now deny.

The programme has had the strong backing of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which had leaned on the Ministry for Civil Aviation to expedite the process. It was then that the AAI began consultations with the Defence Ministry. The Punjab government was keen to get the project off the ground before elections early next year, since the proposed international airport implies attractive and primary spin-off of non-resident Indian (NRI) traffic and investments.

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The IAF and MoD refused to officially comment on the matter but senior officials told The Indian Express that the PPP model was inserted recently and was not there in the beginning. On the other hand, AAI sources said the PPP model was part of the proposal from the very beginning, though it was possible that discussions between the AAI and MoD had not delved into the details of how the investments would be made, and therefore the last minute surprise. Additionally, the AAI says it has commitments to upgrade 35 other non-metro airports and so there is little question of anything but the PPP route.

The Halwara airfield, 100 kms from the Pakistan border and home to a squadron of MiG-23BN ground attack aircraft and two Pechora surface-to-air missile flights, has one runway with the IAF’s parking unit, blast pens and other facilities placed around it. The proposal envisages a civilian terminal built on acquired non-defence land outside the IAF’s perimeter wall and a 49-51 AAI-Punjab government joint venture to build the tarmac and taxi-way approach to the main IAF runway.

Top sources in the IAF said Air Headquarters was keen on working only with government agencies for the Halwara project and was not comfortable with the prospect of private sector participation in such a strategically sensitive airfield. This was principally why the Defence Ministry is holding onto the proposal, they said. The AAI finds this inexplicable, however, pointing out that the land on which the civilian terminus is to be built was provided by the Punjab government and that since it was outside the perimeter of the IAF’s airfield, it did not propose a security threat.