Ludhiana, March 30 -- Two months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the newly constructed civil terminal at the Halwara airport, flight operations are expected to commence by mid-May, Union minister of state for railways Ravneet Singh Bittu said on Sunday. Bittu announced that services on the Halwara-Delhi route are likely to begin between May 10 and May 15, with ticket bookings expected to open in April. The initial operations will be carried out using a 160-seater Airbus A320 aircraft, with two daily flights planned . Describing the development as a major boost to regional connectivity, Bittu said the project would enhance travel convenience and promote trade and economic growth in Punjab. The civil terminal, designed initially for domestic operations, was inaugurated after facing multiple delays over the past eight years. At present, the facility has the capacity to handle around 150 passengers at a time and can accommodate one domestic flight at a given time under existing arrangements. Officials said the first flight on the route is expected to be operated by Air India. Plans are also in place to expand the terminal into an international facility in the coming years as passenger traffic increases. A political tussle has erupted over credit for the long-awaited operationalisation of the Halwara airport, with Punjab cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora on Sunday asserting that recent statements by Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu are "misleading" and fail to reflect the actual sequence of developments. Arora said he had already announced during a press briefing on March 26 that flight bookings from Halwara would begin in the coming week. "The same was reiterated three days later. Some opportunists are merely repeating what has already been brought into the public domain by me," he said in an apparent swipe at Bittu....