AAI looking to improve airport infrastructure through planned investment

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is reportedly set to make an investment of Rs 190 billion to boost the infrastructure of airports over the next three years. The motive behind the decision is to upgrade runway capacity as well as building terminal capacity in order to increase the overall efficiency of the airports. The main focus is on relatively smaller cities. AAI has chalked out a plan that will also include metropolitan areas like Chennai and Kolkata. Work towards enhancing the infrastructure of some airports has already begun and will soon commence in the rest. Currently, state-owned AAI manages 125 airports, including 11 international aerodromes. It is now on the route to add 273 parking bays at 24 airports as a solution to the overdue parking issue faced by the airlines. These slots are uniformly spread out over the country with about 82 in the south, 70 in the east and northeast, along with 61 in the north followed by 60 in the west. Additionally, Gujarat’s Rajkot, Jharkhand’s Dhalbhumgarh, including Hollongi and Halwara in the Northeast are the new sites selected for the construction of new airports. The funding for these projects will come in from debts and profits earned by AAI, as well as through other mediums. Apart from pumping infrastructure and construction of airports, the body also has a signed contract with Boeing that dwells into developing a detailed blueprint for the modernising of air traffic management in India.