Goverment has woken up and is all geared up for adding infrastructure to make air travel lss cumbersome.This additional aviation infrastructure is likely to be developed on the private-public partnership (PPP) model.With smaller cities set to lead the air traffic growth in the country, the government is planning to build nearly 200 low-cost airports in the next 20 years to meet the demand for air travel. As per a report in FE by Sunny verma & Nirbhay Kumar, this additional aviation infrastructure is likely to be developed on the private-public partnership (PPP) model, throwing business opportunities for developers like GMR, GVK, L&T and Reliance-ADAG.
“The first phase of growth in the aviation sector has been led by low-cost airlines. The next phase would be driven by low-cost airports. The country should have 300 operational airports by the end of 2030,” a senior aviation ministry official said. Each low-cost airport, which would have only basic facilities like runway, terminal building and air navigation infrastructure is expected to cost R80-125 crore. As per an estimate bigger airports worldwide handle 60% of the total air traffic and the remaining is managed by low-cost smaller airports.
Most of the airports in tier-II and III towns would be built by developing existing airstrips, which are not in operation. Presently, there are 350 unused airstrips in the country. The government is keen to develop these airstrips since they already exist and the rule which bars building airports within 150 km of an existing airport does not come up in the way.
The government has in the last few years accorded in-principle approval to build 14 greenfield airports in the country. New airports have been proposed in cities like Dabra (Madhya Pradesh), Saras (Rajasthan), Durgapur (West Bengal) Paladi Ram Singhpur (Rajasthan), Karaikal (Puducherry) and Kushinagar in UP.
