Shimla: Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu called on Union Minister for Civil Aviation Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu at New Delhi today. The Chief Minister sought support of the Union Minister for expansion of Kangra airport and urged for special central assistance (grant) for the project. He requested for speedy settlement of issues and added that Kangra district has immense tourism potential and state government was executing ambitious projects for attracting large number of tourists.
He also requested for introducing special visual flight rules for reducing minimum visibility criteria from existing 5 km to 2.5 km to ensure operation of flights during reduced visibility conditions. The Chief Minister also discussed about handing over Kullu and Shimla airports to State Police instead of CISF keeping in view less number of flight operations and passengers which would also reduce the financial burden on the state. He also requested to extend the flight operation hours upto 4pm at Shimla airport for increasing the operation of flights.
He requested to increase the frequency of number of flights from Chandigarh to Shimla and Shimla to Chandigarh besides sanctioning four proposed heliports at the earliest. The Union Minister directed the officers to hold a joint meeting with the concerned officers and prepare DPR for expansion of Kangra airport. He also assured full support to the state. Chief Minister’s Principal Advisor Ram Subhag Singh was also present in the meeting.
