Runway to nowhere

Ram Narain, a peasant in North Goa, prayed every day for an airport close to his village. It would save him the ₹1,000 he spent on a taxi ride to the airport every time he visited his son in Dubai. Imagine his joy when the Government announced the setting up of a new airport in Mopa, a short distance from his village in Pernem taluka.

The Union Government had granted ‘in-principle’ approval for the ₹3,000-crore project in 2000, and the State government has acquired 1,907 acres of land. But 14 years on, nothing has changed. The government is yet to float tenders for the construction of the new airport. And Narain still has to take a taxi to the old one.

It’s the same story across states. From Maharashtra, where a greenfield (new) airport was to come up in Navi Mumbai, to Tamil Nadu, where land had been earmarked in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, projects have been announced only to be forgotten.

The ₹200-crore Dabra airport in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, got the go-ahead in December 2008. However, the project has run into problems over land acquisition and is stuck in litigation in the Supreme Court.

In Kerala, the international airport at Aranmula, which was being built by the KGS Group with support from the State Government, is now on hold. The National Green Tribunal has cancelled the environmental clearance given by the Environment and Forests Ministry to the ₹2,000-crore airport project, for which 600 acres of land have been acquired. The company has moved the Supreme Court against the NGT verdict.

There are few exceptions to this sorry tale. One is the airport at Andal, near Durgapur in West Bengal. The private airport, promoted by Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd, was declared ready for commercial operations in April 2013 but has been held up by delays in removing high-tension transmission lines running across the airstrip.

Another exception is Kerala’s Kannur airport project, which is now on schedule ( see story below ).

During its tenure, the UPA Government had announced in-principle approval for 15 greenfield airports. Most are still at a very nascent stage.

Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, is a case in point. This suburb, located about 45 km west of Chennai, on the highway to Bangalore, is today at the heart of Tamil Nadu’s industrial development initiative.

The industrial belt is spread over 10,000 acres and hosts a wide array of manufacturing units, including those of automobile, electronics, household appliance and engineering companies, and with more coming.

Though land was identified in 2007 for an airport in Sriperumbudur, the Centre halted the project and that is where it stands today, with the State and Centre blaming each other.

Hopes that the project would go ahead were revived when Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa released a Vision 2023 document in March 2012. It mentioned the greenfield airport and said it would be equipped to handle 40 million passengers. Unfortunately, it has not moved beyond that.

Things are marginally better in Navi Mumbai. In an effort to push this project, ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan in October last year, and the duo are said to have sorted out issues hindering the airport project.

Sanjay Bhatia, MD, City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited, lead project developer for the ₹14,500-crore airport Navi Mumbai airport, is very optimistic about the way ahead. He says all major clearances have been obtained and that the airport should be operational by December 2018. However, the project yet to begin the process to identify a partner, without which it cannot take off.

The delay in developing new airports is not unduly worrying the industry. “So far, the deferrals in these (airport) buildings has not been a factor for the Lufthansa Group in looking to offer more flights to India,” said Jaan Albrecht, who represents the Lufthansa Group, which includes Swiss, Austrian and Lufthansa, all of which operate to cities in India.

While there is a lot of heartburn over the slow progress of the new airports, many are questioning the need to have a second airport in some cities.

Navi Mumbai would be Mumbai’s second airport, while Mopa would be the second for Goa. Kerala already has three international airports in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode. With Kannur and Aranmula, the tiny state, which has a large number of people working overseas and which is a popular tourist destination, will have five international airports.

However, many of these cities are seeking a second airport because of the projected increase in air travellers and lack of space to expand facilities at their existing airports. The Airports Authority of India has estimated that over the next five years, traffic at all Indian airports will shoot up both in terms of aircraft movements (4.2 per cent) and passengers (5.3 per cent).

In the case of Goa, another popular tourist destination, apart from the increase in passenger numbers, the fact that it is a Navy airport hampers operations of civilian aircraft.

Globally, Kuala Lumpur is a good example of a city that has used a second airport well. The Malaysian capital already had a new airport. But the Government was keen to promote operations by budget airlines, so a low-cost terminal was also built in the city. The terminal is thriving today.

(With inputs from Adith Charlie and Rahul Wadke in Mumbai, TE Raja Simhan in Chennai and KPM Basheer in Kochi)