“I have suggested renaming the airport as ‘Amba Airport Ambala Cantonment’ in a letter to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar,” Vij added. The state government will pay the federal government 133 crore for the defense land, and the airport terminal tender would be released soon. I’m hoping that construction will start shortly.
Anil Vij, the home minister for Haryana, wrote to the chief executive to suggest renaming the future domestic airport in Ambala Cantonment to honor Goddess Amba.
Nearly 50 miles from Chandigarh’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport, the airport—officially known as Civil Enclave—is being built on 20 acres of defense land next to an Indian Air Force (IAF) station.
Speaking with HT, Vij said, “I have written a letter to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, proposing to name the airport as ‘Amba Airport Ambala Cantonment’. The state government will pay the federal government 133 crore for the defense land, and the airport terminal tender would be released soon. I’m hoping that work will soon start on the ground. Work on the football stadium, science center, and the renovation of the sub-divisional civil hospital has also started after being delayed for a while.
Ambala, formerly known as Umballa under British administration, derives its name from the goddess Amba, and one of the oldest shrines in the area is the Ambika Mata Temple. The ancient Hindu shrine, which is dedicated to Goddess Amba, Ambika, or Ambalika, is thought to have been built before the British rule.
The Haryana Public Works Department (PWD) was to issue an invitation for bids for the rehabilitation of an abandoned facility to be used as a terminal after the defence ministry approved 20 acres of defense land in June.
The Haryana Airports Development Authority (HADA) will now develop the terminal after the $16.6 crore bidding was closed owing to technical difficulties.
Bids for the terminal work will be opened the following week, according to a senior HADA official.
According to the plan, the abandoned structure would be repaired and utilized as a temporary terminal. It is situated on NH-444A (also known as the Ambala-Saha Highway or Jagadhari Road) in the army’s dairy farms region.
The air force strip will be used for flight operations from here, where buses will transport passengers to the aircraft.
The airport has been delayed mostly because of land-related concerns close to the strategically significant IAF facility, despite being sanctioned under the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation’s UDAN 3.0 scheme in December 2018.
Source- Hindustan times
