New Shorter Route to Mohali Airport

Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has approved a shorter road link to Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport in Mohali, reviving a project that has been debated since the airport opened in November 2015. The move is meant to give travelers from Chandigarh, Panchkula and Zirakpur a more direct approach to the airport instead of the longer existing route. The Tribune reported on May 18 that Haryana will bear the full cost after Punjab declined to contribute, citing economic stress. A separate Punjab-side airport link road being built by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority, or GMADA, has also been under construction and was expected to be fully operational by March 31, 2026. ### Why has this airport road remained unresolved for so long? Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Shaheed Bhagat Singh International Airport on November 11, 2015, and the old domestic airport on the Indian Air Force base then ceased to be the main civilian access point. Since then, commuters from Chandigarh and Panchkula have had to use a longer, circuitous route to reach the Mohali airport. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has been hearing a long-running public interest case on airport access and related infrastructure since 2015. (tribuneindia.com) The Chandigarh administration, Punjab government, Ministry of Defence, Indian Air Force, Chandigarh International Airport Ltd and the Ministry of Railways were all part of earlier consultations on the alternate route, according to a July 2023 Times of India report on the project’s implementation stage. That report said the route required land acquisition across multiple jurisdictions, including Chandigarh and Punjab, helping explain why the proposal moved slowly. (tribuneindia.com) ### Which route is already under construction on the Punjab side? GMADA has been building an alternate airport road from the Sector 65-66 junction near Bawa White House toward Sector 66-B in Mohali. Punjab told the Punjab and Haryana High Court in February 2025 that an 8.5-km alternative road was under construction and would be completed by December 2025. (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) By December 20, 2025, however, Hindustan Times reported that the deadline had slipped and that the full 8.7-km, 164-foot-wide link was expected to be operational by March 31, 2026. The report said the road would reduce the distance from Tribune Chowk in Chandigarh to the airport by nearly 7 km and that work was still underway on a railway underpass and a bridge over the N-choe. (tribuneindia.com) ### What did Haryana approve this week? The Tribune reported on May 18, 2026, that Saini cleared the long-pending shorter route project for Chandigarh, Panchkula and Zirakpur travelers heading to the Mohali airport. The newspaper said Haryana agreed to shoulder the entire cost because Punjab did not want to participate financially. The Centre’s approval is still awaited. (hindustantimes.com) The same report said Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann argued the proposed route would not benefit Punjab residents, while Haryana emphasized the gains for commuters from its side of the Tricity region. That split reflects the project’s long-running political and administrative dispute over who benefits and who pays. (tribuneindia.com) ### How much shorter is the trip expected to become? The Punjab-side link road already under execution offers the clearest published measurements. Hindustan Times reported in December 2025 that the new road would cut the Tribune Chowk-to-airport distance from 15.8 km by nearly 7 km. Earlier reporting around the project also described a sharp reduction in travel time compared with the present approach through Airport Road and the ISB T-junction. (tribuneindia.com) The practical effect is that traffic from Chandigarh and parts of Mohali would no longer need to continue as far as the existing turn points before looping back toward the terminal. For Panchkula and Zirakpur commuters, the Haryana-backed decision is intended to create a similarly shorter access option once the remaining approvals are in place. (hindustantimes.com) ### What happens next before travelers can use it? The Centre’s nod is the next formal step for the Haryana-backed route cleared by Saini, according to The Tribune’s May 18 report. On the Punjab side, GMADA had said in December 2025 that one stretch would become motorable first, with the full link road targeted for March 31, 2026, after the underpass and bridge work was finished. (hindustantimes.com) The next milestones to watch are therefore twofold: central approval for the Haryana-cleared alignment and the operational status of the GMADA-built corridor near Sector 65-66 and Sector 66-B in Mohali. Those steps will determine when commuters from Chandigarh, Panchkula, Zirakpur and Mohali can actually shift off the existing airport approach road. (tribuneindia.com)