India to have 35 new airports by 2010
26 Jul 2007
By 2010 India will have 35 new airports to cope with the rising demand for air travel. India currently has 133 airports that include 14 international terminals.
Speaking at a seminar organised by the Foundation for Aviation and Sustainable Tourism (FAST), V P Agarwal, member (planning), Airports Authority of India (AAI), said that AAI would invest Rs40,000 crore in the next five years on developing airport infrastructure.
He said the growth of low-fare airlines and cheaper airfares would encourage road and rail passengers to shift to air travel. To cope with rising demand the AAI had planned the rapid vacation of runways and interconnecting all major airports with city centres by metro trains.
Ashok Chawla, secretary, civil aviation, said that renovating and upgrading existing airports and developing greenfield airports were the only solution to meeting the current demand arising out of the fast growing aviation market.
He said that the government was investing $35 billion across the country for the new airports projects that were expected to be operational by 2010.
Gurcharan Bhatura, secretary general, FAST, said that India needed airports with world-class infrastructure meeting the benchmarks of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), irrespective of the number of aircraft or their size.
He said all departing passengers should be able to complete all formalities including luggage X-ray, airline checking, immigration, customs and security checks within 60 minutes and all arrival formalities in 45 minutes.
On arrival, passengers should be able to complete all formalities within 45 minutes and leave the airport, he said.
Bhatura specified that it was neither the size of the airport nor its ability to handle new generation aircraft like A380 or Boeing 777, its safety, security and efficient handling of passengers, freight and aircraft operations.
He also highlighted the need for adequate runway, taxiway and terminal capacities in addition to service quality and friendly staff.