Waking up to the need to have low cost airports in the country to cater to the burgeoning air traffic, the Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday said it was preparing policy guidelines for the same.
Disclosing this, civil aviation Secretary Ashok Chawla said the objective was to put into operation unused airstrips in smaller towns and developing those airports by making minimum investments.
He was addressing a conference on developing world class airports organised by the Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism.
Formative stage
“This concept is still at a formative stage. We have discussed the issue with the state chief secretaries at a meeting held here last Saturday”, the secretary noted.
Ministry joint secretary in-charge of airports K N Shrivastava, speaking on the occasion, said there was a need to open 50-100 small airports over the next five years in the country. “Investors were looking at Tier II and III cities to develop airports,” he said and added that states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, North Eastern states and Bihar have shown interest in developing new airports.
He appreciated the working of the Hubli airport which, he said, has broken record even within three years of operation by merely collecting passenger service fee. The airport was not even getting landing and navigation charges since the smaller planes (ATRs) which operate to Hubli are exempted from this tax, he added.
Chawla said the work on modernising 35 non-metro airports was progressing and 24 of them would be ready by 2009 and the rest by 2010.
While AAI has taken up work on majority of these airports, the ministry wants public-private-partnership in others, he said.
As he stressed the need for multiple airports for major cities, he said having the second airport in Bangalore and Hyderabad would not be possible at present.
“This kind of aviation growth was not envisaged when bids were floated for these two airports. The contractual obligation in these two airports has it that once new airport comes up, the existing one should be closed. In hindsight we can say it was not the best thing to do. Unless there is an arrangement worked out by stake holders, having a second airport legally and technically in these two cities is difficult”.
According to the secretary, by 2020, passenger movements and handling, which was 96 million in 2006, would go up to 400 m and the number of aircraft from 312 to 1000. Noting that Delhi and Mumbai airports handle 45 per cent of passenger traffic, he added that five major airports handle 70 per cent of traffic.
Noting that there would be massive investments in four metro airports to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore in 3-4 years, Chawla said there would be a total spending of Rs 41,000 crore in all the airports including 35 non-metro airports in 4-5 years.
