In its monthly radio program, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a major announcement settling all matters over a decade-long cause of renaming Chandigarh Airport.
The announcement came three days ahead of an auspicious day of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Jayanti on September 28th. It is on this day the renaming of the airport will be done officially, PM said later in his monologue.
History of the Conflict:
It was for the first time on March 25th, 2008 when the Punjab government passed an unofficial proposal to rename Chandigarh Airport as Shaheed-e-Azam Sardar Bhagat Singh International Airport, Mohali.
A similar proposal was put forth by the Haryana government on June 28th and September 16th in 2010 but the contention hovered around the addition of Mohali after it.
The conflict around naming the airport after Shaheed-e-Azam in between Haryana and Punjab is as long as a decade. Several rounds of discussions and meetings went in vain up until last month when the Bhagwant Mann-led government finally reached a consensus with their counterpart in Haryana.
Three states in total hold the owners of the mega Chandigarh International Airport, which makes the decision-making around it more tedious. Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh had been at persistent loggerheads over the decision of renaming the airport based on the choice of each state.
An idea was put forth to add the names of Mohali, Chandigarh, and Panchkula after the airport which will be addressed in short as MCP, but was dropped, and is finally being renamed after the national icon.
The Airport Authority of India holds a majority 51% stake in the Chandigarh Airport whereas the state of Punjab and Haryana holds another 24.5% of the share each. The Punjab government was of the view that since the airport’s terminal falls under Mohali, therefore it must be named after Mohali.
Whereas, Chandigarh had its own share of logic in naming the airport after the city as the airport’s 75% of the land falls in their territory.
Cut to 2016 the Central government wrote to the governments of Punjab and Haryana to rename the airport after Shaheed Bhagat Singh with Chandigarh after it. The order was suspended then as well.
Though Haryana agreed to the proposal, Punjab turned it down and emphasized it over the name it had proposed back in 2008. This issue has now been settled after the final nod from the Prime Minister.