May 25, 2011: Area residents can look forward to international flights from Chandigarh soon, as the latest difficulty holding up international flight service from the Tricity has been resolved: Airports Authority of India (AAI) has taken a decision regarding the operations of the airport’s immigration facility, entrusting the work to Chandigarh police.
UT cops were given this task last week when local officials of AAI held a meeting with senior officials from Chandigarh and Punjab police, the Intelligence Bureau (IB), and Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Until then, AAI was undecided as to who should run the facility, with the expected result of delaying the start of international services. Now that the decision has been taken, international flights should begin from June.
The non availability of an immigration facility was one of the factors that caused the last minute cancelation of a Chandigarh-Dubai flight set to launch in July 2010. Without international service at Chandigarh, area residents have to travel to either Amritsar or Delhi to connect to international flights leaving from there.
The IB usually staffs immigration facilities in Indian airports, but senior officials in Chandigarh police say that this was not possible in Chandigarh due to an IB staff shortage.
A senior police official was quick to point out the benefits of the local police working as immigration officials, saying that since the Foreign Registration Office (FRO) branch of UT police already has information for people holding passports and visas from the area, work would proceed more quickly and efficiently.
Alok Kumar, UT DIG, said that AAI’s decision makes Chandigarh police the city force to handle immigration at an international airport in India. Punjab police have agreed to assist Chandigarh cops in their work. According to Mr. Kumar, 29 officers from Punjab police trained in immigrations procedure by IB are set to help the force in Chandigarh with training and operations start up.
Captain H S Toor, Director of Chandigarh Airport, said that people from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh numbering in the thousands would directly benefit from the immigration facility and that thousands of foreign tourists would enjoy added convenience as well.
Tricity travel agents say that travelers contacting them regarding international flights number in the thousands. Passengers have been expecting internatonal flights from the airport for some time. Last year, a proposal for starting international flights to Dubai, Malaysia and Thailand was struck down by local authorities. According to one travel agency owner, the start up of the immigration facility means that international flights will start and his business will prosper since people will want to take advantage of these flights rather than spending the time and money to go to Delhi for the purpose.