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‘Other modalities are still being worked out’

Our Bureau

New Delhi, June 27 The Civil Aviation Ministry has been accorded in-principle approval to fly civilian aircrafts from the Hindon airport. “We have got the in-principle approval to allow commercial aircrafts to use the Hindon airport for a couple of hours. But the details and the other modalities are still being worked out, so I cannot disclose more,” Mr K.N. Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Civil Aviation Ministry, said on the sidelines of seminar on ‘Aviation Industry Issues’ organised by Assocham and Ernst & Young.

He also said that the Government was making headway on the issue of civilian aircrafts using defence airspace. “If an agreement on the issue can be reached then airline companies would save a lot of time and cost will also come down,” Mr Srivastava added.

For example, flights flying out of the Delhi Airport have to take a five minute detour to avoid flying over the Hindon airbase. Mr Srivastava also said that the Airport Authority of India (AAI) would be investing around Rs 12,000 crore to develop airports across the country in the next four-and-half-years. “The Ministry expects at least 50-100 airports to come up in the next couple of years. This would include developing couple of airstrips that already exist and also a couple of greenfield projects,” he said.

The AAI has identified four locations in the North East, two in Maharashtra and one in Karnataka where new airports would come up and a couple of others where the existing airstrips would be developed.

Apart from the AAI investing Rs 12,000 crore, the Ministry also sees at least double of this amount coming from the private sector for the development of the airports. “It is very heartening to see that the low-cost airlines are propelling the growth of the sector. And since they fly to the Tier II and Tier III cities, the Government is compelled to develop the infrastructure in these places also,” he said.

He explained that smaller airports would be the future of India as in metros, land prices were rising and there was shortage of space for putting up Greenfield airports.

The Joint Secretary also mentioned that the bill for creating the Aviation Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) is likely to be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament. The Government has proposed AERA to frame regulations and guidelines for big-ticket mergers, sharing of airport space, parking bays and to provide a level playing field for the operators.

“The Ministry has also decided that all the operating airports across the country must have night landing facility irrespective of where they are situated,” he said.

Mr Srivastava also mentioned that a Committee has been constituted under Mr Anwar Hooda, Member, Planning Commission, to suggest measures to establish rail and road linkages from airports in 10 cities so that passengers after getting off the aircraft could board the train and reach their destinations.

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Ministry gets in-principle nod for use of Hindon airport

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