Govt ‘in principle’ approves setting up of 18 Greenfield airports
21 March, New Delhi
The Centre has granted “in principle” approval for setting up of the 18 Greenfield airports in the country, the Rajya Sbha was informed Tuesday.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in a written reply said the list of these airports includes Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Hasan and Shimoga in Karnataka, Kannur in Kerala, Durgapur in West Bengal, Dabra in Madhya Pradesh, Pakyong in Sikkim, Karaikal in Puducherry, Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera in Gujarat and Dagadarthi Mendal, Nellore Dist., Bhogapuram in Vizianagaram District near Visakhapatnam and Oravakallu in Kurnool District, Andhra Pradesh.
Government of India has granted “site clearance” approval for setting up of the 5 Greenfield airports in the country. The list of these airports is as under: Machiwara, Ludhiana Airport, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Alwar in Rajasthan and Kothagudem in Telangana.Mopa Airport in Goa, Navi Mumbai and Shirdi Airport in Maharashtra, Kannur Airport in Kerala, Kushinagar Airport in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera Airport in Gujarat, Bhogapuram Airport in Andhra Pradesh, Machiwara Airport in Ludhiana and Alwar Airport in Rajasthan are International Greenfield Airports.
As regards construction of new Greenfield airports, execution of project, including finalisation of project cost and financing arrangement is the sole responsibility of the respective airport promoters. However, as per the information provided by the respective airport developer, the total estimated cost for setting up of above mentioned 18 Greenfield Airports in the country comes out to Rs 30,000 crore (approx).
In reply to another question, Sinha said, ”For development of Bilaspur airport and Raigarh airport in Chhattisgarh, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) has projected the requirement of 387.3 acres of land at Bilaspur and permanent transfer of the existing airport land of 23 acres along with an additional 569 acres of land at Raigarh.
Acquisition and handing over of land free of cost and free from all encumbrances by the State Government is the pre-requisite for development of these airport projects.”He informed that two airports in Chhattisgarh, viz. Bilaspur and Raipur belong to AAI. Raipur Airport has already been upgraded to international standards with Integrated Terminal Building. Although, Indian carriers are free to mount services from any point in India to foreign destinations as per the respective bilateral air service agreements, actual operations are always guided by traffic demand and commercial judgement of airlines.
Replying to a question related to construction of Bhogapuram International Airport, Sinha informed that the government has granted ‘in principle’ approval to Bhogapuram International Airport Corporation Limited (BIACL) for setting up of Bhogapuram International Greenfield Airport for public use in Vizianagaram District, near Visakhapatnam in October, 2016.
The construction of airport projects depends upon many factors such as land acquisition, availability of mandatory clearances, financial closure by the individual operator and the land acquisition is the subject matter of state government.The estimated expenditure for the construction of Bhogapuram Airport is approx Rs 2,260 crore.
The land acquisition and pre-development activities are intended to be done through HUDCO loan and State Budget by BIACL and the total cost of construction of Airport and airport operations are intended to be done by the developer.
The proposal for setting up of Greenfield Airport at Bhogapuram is approved with the condition that scheduled commercial operations at the civil enclave at the existing Vizag Naval Airfield are stopped once the operation of Greenfield airports at Bhogapuram starts, for a period of 30 years.