Chandigarh, October 11: Sh. Manish Tewari, Member of Parliament, Chandigarh and former Union Minister of Information & Broadcasting Government of India, along with S. Malvinder Singh Kang, Hon’ble Member of Parliament from Shri Anandpur Sahib, Punjab, jointly chaired a meeting convened by Chandigarh International Airport Limited on the question on issue of unusual bird activity around the Chandigarh International Airport, which is causing a flight safety hazard for Indian Air Force and Civilian aircrafts that are either landing and taking off.
The Ajay Verma Chief Executive Officer (CHIAL), Manav Anand Group Capt (SATCO), Municipal Commissioner of Mohali Parminder Singh, the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Urban Development) Mohali Anmol Singh Dhaliwal, Municipal Commissioner of Chandigarh Sh. Amit Kumar, ADC Chandigarh Amandeep Singh Bhatti, Sh. Sanjay Arora Chief Engineer Municipal Corporation Chandigarh, MOH Health Chandigarh Dr. Inderdeep Kaur and other concerned officials attended the meeting along with senior officials from the Indian Air Force attended the meeting.
Officers of the Indian Air Force – SATCO Group Captain Manav Anand and his colleagues briefed the assembled stakeholders about the gravity of the problem to aircraft safety as a consequence of increased bird activity in and around the Chandigarh airport.
The problem areas in the take-off and landing approach of the Chandigarh airport, where bird activity is taking place was microscopically identified by pin pointing them on a Map of the area around the airport.
Both Mr. Tewari and Mr. Kang instructed the concerned officials that immediate steps need to be taken to ensure that all garbage and other unauthorized activity, that is leading to this increased bird activity in the funnels of the runway on the eastern and western side of the runway need to be addressed on a priority basis.
Mr. Tewari and Mr. Kang advised the concerned stakeholders including officers of the Indian Air Force, the representatives of the Chandigarh International Airport Limited as well as the district and municipal authorities of the Chandigarh and the Mohali to immediately convene among themselves and draw up an action plan to resolve the problem of garbage and waste dumping, that is leading to this unusual bird activity at the earliest in the next seven days.
Both Mr. Tewari and Mr. Kang specifically stated that an action taken report with regard to the problem areas identified and the steps taken in order to address those problems must be presented within a period of three weeks, when the next meeting on this issue would be jointly convened by both the Member of Parliament from Chandigarh and the Member of Parliament from Shri Anandpur Sahib as a sub group of the Airport Advisory Committee of the Chandigarh International Air Port Limited.
Both MP’s Mr Tewari and Mr Kang further strongly recommended that the penal provisions of the Indian Aircraft’s Act 1937 that provide for a fine of Rupees one crore and an imprisonment of upto three years must be immediately actioned by the designated authority administering the said act to ensure that violators within a radius of 10 Kilometres from the airport whose activities are safety and security hazard to the safety of aircraft are rigorously enforced immediately by issuing show cause notices and instituting criminal proceedings against the violators.
Passenger safety and Aviation safety is a matter of utmost concern and top most priority and therefore both the MPs advised the concerned stakeholders that absolutely that there should be zero tolerance for any unauthorised activity which causes a safety issue to incoming or outgoing aircraft at the Chandigarh International Airport.
