Mandi Airport | |
|---|---|
| Summary | |
| Airport type | Public |
| Owner | Government of India |
| Operator | Airports Authority of India |
| Serves | Mandi |
| Location | Nag Chala |
| Elevation AMSL | 2,560 ft / 780 m |
| Coordinates | 31°37′23″N76°56′15″E / 31.62306°N 76.93750°E /31.62306; 76.93750 |
| Map | |
  Mandi Airport  Mandi Airport | |
Mandi Airport is a proposedgreenfield airport to be built at Nag Chala[1] inMandi District in theIndianstate ofHimachal Pradesh. The airport will be built on a total of 698 acres.[2] TheAirports Authority of India (AAI) gave its clearance for the airport after visiting the site in May 2018.[3]In August 2019, Himachal Pradesh Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur requested theFifteenth Finance Commission for a special purpose grant of Rs 2,000 crore towards construction of the airport for operation ofwide-body aircraft. The AAI completed its Obstacle Limitation Surfaces survey for the project site in August 2019.[1]TheMinistry of Civil Aviation gave in-principle approval for the execution of the project with the help of the AAI in October 2019.[4]In January 2020, AAI signed aMemorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Himachal Pradesh Government to build and operate the airport through aJoint Venture Company. The airport will have a unidirectional runway, suitable for operation of aircraft up toATR 72 initially.[5]WAPCOS has been appointed as project consultant and has floated tenders forenvironmental impact assessment for the project[6] following a site visit in July 2020.[7]
The Himachal Pradesh government had first proposed an international greenfield airport in the Balh valley of Mandi district to theUnion Civil Aviation ministry in 2008.[8]Since the existing airports in the state atKullu,Kangra andShimla were only capable of handling small aircraft, the State government was keen to develop a bigger airport atSundar Nagar that could cater to bigger aircraft and had offered land for the project.[9]