Leh, Nov 05: Member Parliament Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal convened a review meeting with the members of Airport Authority of India and Executive Agencies regarding the under construction Kushok Bakula Rinpochey (KBR), Airport Leh here today.
DGM Airport Authority of India (AAI) Sanjay Thakur, Director Airport Authority Leh, Sonam Norbu, Project Director EIL, T.R Sharma, Project Manager Shapoorji Pallonji and Co, Pvt Ltd Yogesh Shukla attended the meeting.
At the outset, DGM AAI Sanjay Thakur gave a detailed PowerPoint Presentation of project salient features. It is explained in the PPT that the project has a total cost of Rs. 480.00 crores out of which 323.19 Crores for composite works. He further informed that the newly constructed Airport has the features of 18985 Sqm of terminal building, 3340 Sqm of Utility building, 1.6 million passenger capacity/800 peak hours passengers, 3 numbers of passenger boarding bridges and also included 13 passenger lifts and 2 goods lifts. He further explains the other facilities of the Airport like surface car parking, central cooling and heating system and solar grid power system.
He further apprised the Member Parliament that the 26% of physical work has been completed and nearly Rs. 65 Crores has been spent till date out of the total project cost. He also added that due to the Covid19 pandemic and short working seasons the duration of completion will extend till December 2022 earlier completion date was framed as September 2021.
Regarding the electricity connection for the new terminal building, the Airport Authority of India has already sanctioned deposit work of Rs. 4.81 Cr and the MoU has been signed with Chief engineer PDD, UT administration but it is pending due to the clause of Operation & maintenance of Substation equipment at PDD substation in this regard DGM requested the MP Ladakh for his intervention. In response MP Ladakh assured that he will further intervene with the UT Administration.
A detailed discussion also took place regarding the interior design, night flight operation and expansion of the area.
Speaking to the media, MP Ladakh stated that the Government of India has sanctioned a total amount of Rs. 480 Crores for this project and the construction has been under full speed. Earlier its completion period was September 2021, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic the duration of completion will extend till December 2022. He appreciates the Shapoorji Pallonji and Co, Pvt Ltd and its team for the quality and authenticity towards the project. He further directed the representative of GoI, Airport Authority and Shapoorji Pallonji teams for effort without compromise in quality and authenticity in future and also directed for completion of the project in a given time frame. He further added that the newly 6 bays project has the capacity of handling 20-25 Airlines per day.
MP Ladakh also visited and inspected the under construction Utility building and other sites of the under construction Airport with the teams
Later, MP JTN also inspected and took stock of the facilities being provided to the passengers in the existing airport and requested the concerned authorities to improve and upgrade the required facilities like running water, public utilities and heating system. He also interacted with the Officers and CISF personnel deployed at Leh Airport and enquired about their wellbeing and facilities provided to them.
