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Top Indian Airports Bursting At Thier Seams. Here’s How Government Plans To Add Capacity
The Delhi airport. (Photo credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
India’s aviation industry is soaring to new highs with the sector recording a month-on-month passenger growth of 25 percent in July.
But, is the country geared to meet the challenges of sudden rush of people taking to travel and poor aviation infrastructure?
The answer is yes. The Civil Aviation Ministry is working on a plan to upgrade airport infrastructure and equip them with better traffic handling capacities.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, said that Indian airports are expected to see a surge of more than a billion passengers over the next 10 years, supported by airlines ordering larger planes.
Planning for the next six years, the aim of this new programme is to ensure that growth of airports is not hindered by a lack of capacity.
The first two years will see the government working on increasing efficiency of existing airports. This phase also includes the possible use of Juhu Airport for general aviation to decongest Mumbai’s main airport.
The next two years will see airports like Delhi and those in the North East get upgrades, while the final two years will see newer airports being commissioned. Goa airport has been awarded and the government hopes to award Navi Mumbai Airport soon.
Mumbai Airport is saturated and cannot handle new flights due to lack of slots, while Delhi is unable to do so during peak hours. Airlines have expressed fears over saturating airport capacity, citing a similar problem cropping up back in 2009 which saw improvement when Airport Authority of India decided to upgrade its infrastructure and newer, private airports were built.
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