Mohali, Aug. 30 -- Member of Parliament from Chandigarh and chairman of the Chandigarh International Airport Advisory Committee, Manish Tewari, on Friday urged that the old terminal of the Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh International Airport be made operational at the earliest. He said this would benefit passengers from Chandigarh and Panchkula, who currently face accessibility issues. Chairing a meeting of the Chandigarh International Airport Advisory Committee, MP Tewari said it was unanimously resolved to communicate to the Union ministry of civil aviation and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) the demand to designate the Chandigarh International Airport as a Point of Call (PoC). A PoC is a designated airport where foreign airlines are allowed to operate under India's Air Services Agreements (ASA). Despite being operational for nearly a decade, the airport has not been declared a PoC and, therefore, does not figure in the 'bilateral offer list'-a prerequisite for foreign airlines to fly in and out of the airport. The airport, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2015, achieved international connectivity status but "failed to expand its presence on foreign routes". MP Tewari pointed out that the issue of reopening the old terminal had also been raised earlier by the Chandigarh chief secretary during a civil aviation ministry conference in May-June 2025. The committee also discussed the need to clean up the surrounding areas and address the bird menace, which poses a serious risk to flight safety. Along with Sri Anandpur Sahib MP and co-chairman of the committee, Malwinder Singh Kang, MP Tewari directed that a joint meeting be convened with the deputy commissioners, SSPs, and municipal commissioners of Chandigarh and Mohali to address flight safety concerns caused by garbage dumping and encroachments near the airport perimeter. It was further decided that representatives of the Indian Air Force and Chandigarh International Airport Limited should also be included in these discussions. The committee also took up the matter of increasing the frequency of domestic flights from Chandigarh to other destinations. Those present at the meeting included airport CEO Ajay Verma, advisory committee members HS Lucky, Chandermukhi Sharma, Ravinder Pal Pali, Pawan Dewan, Gurmail Singh Pahalwan, Bhuvnish Kumar (CASO), Manjit Ghumman, and Karan Gilhotra, besides Chandigarh DC Nishant Yadav, Chandigarh SSP Kanwardeep Kaur, and Mohali SP Ramandeep Singh....