Congestion at airports to ease as 18 greenfield projects receive clearances

In order to ease the growing congestion at airports, especially metro cities, the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has cleared 18 new greenfield airports in the country. The last two years have witnessed several delays and poor on-time performance of airlines, owing to airports not being able to expand and growing passenger traffic.    Now, the new airport at Navi Mumbai being cleared will directly benefit Mumbai. Also, the number of new airports proposed will directly benefit Karnataka in a big way, followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. However, reports indicate that the list does not mention projects proposed in Delhi NCR – Jewar and Hisar, but site clearance approval has been given to the Bhiwadi project in Rajasthan. Also, as reported, while the airport project at Sikkim belongs to AAI, the three projects – Durgapur, Gwalior and Karaikal – will be developed by private players. It is known that the remaining 14 airports were proposed by respective state governments, and the combines cost of these projects is estimated at Rs 31,376.45 crore.   While, reports reveal that the airport projects at Durgapur and Kannur have been completed, new airport locations include Pakyong in Sikkim; Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra; Sindhudurg in Maharashtra; Shirdi in Maharashtra; Mopa in Goa; Bijapur in Karnataka; Gulbarga in Karnataka; Hasan in Karnataka; Shimoga in Karnataka; Kannur in Kerala; Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh; Dholera in Gujarat; Dagadarthi in AP; Bhogapuram in AP; Oravakallu in AP; Durgapur in West Bengal; Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh; and Karaikal in Puducherry. In the past two years, 14 proposals to develop airports have been submitted to the ministry, of which three projects have received an ‘in-principal’ approval while airport projects at Bhiwadi and Kothagudem have been granted 'site clearance' approval.