Six Greenfield Airports To Be Operational In Next Three Years

Six new greenfield airports will be operationalised in the next three years.

This information was given by the Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M. Scindia in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today.

The airports which are expected to be operational include airports at Navi Mumbai, Vijayapura, Hassan, Noida (Jewar), Hirasar and Dholera.

However, the timelines for construction of airports depends upon various factors such as land acquisition, mandatory clearances, removal of obstacles, financial closure etc. by the respective airport developers.

The Government has accorded 'In-Principle' approval for setting up of 21 new Greenfield Airports namely, Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh across the country.;

Out of these, 11 Greenfield airports have been operationalized so far including six airports in last 3 years.

The six airports include Orvakal (Kurnool) in 2021, Sindhudurg in 2021, Kushinagar in 2021, Itanagar in 2022, Mopa in 2023 and Shivamogga in 2023.

Navi Mumbai International Airport

The work on the first phase development of Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will be completed by December 2024.

The NMIA project will be developed in phases, with a capacity to handle 60 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and 1.5 million tonne cargo per annum. In the initial phase, NMIA will implement passenger capacity of 20 MPPA and 800,000 tonne per annum of cargo handling.

The project is being implemented by Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL), which is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) with equity participation of Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited and CIDCO (City and Industrial Development Corporation), in 74:26 ratio.

Vijayapura Airport

Vijayapura Airport is being built by the Karnataka State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (KSIIDC) at the cost of Rs 220 crore.

The project site is located 15 km from the city on 727-acres of land in Madhabavi, located outside the city premises.

The airport project is at an advanced stage of construction, with more than 80 per cent of the work completed.

The greenfield airport will feature a passenger terminal building (the terminal will resemble the temples of Hampi), aircraft apron, a singular 1.9 km runway to handle Airbus-320.

Hassan Airport is a greenfield airport being constructed at Boovanahalli village, 6 km from the city.

The work in the first package is set to end by April 2023.

The current runway has been planned to accommodate ATR-72 flights. Provision has been made to extend the runway to land Airbus 320.

Noida International Airport

The work on the first phase of the Noida International Airport (NIA) at Jewar in Uttar Pradesh is progressing on time and will start functioning by 2024-end.

The first phase spread over 1,334 hectares will have one runway, cargo hub along with a terminal that will cater to domestic and international passengers.

As per the concession agreement, the first phase for 12 million passengers per annum is to be completed and made operational by September 2024.

Hirasar Airport

The airport at Hirasar in Gujarat's Rajkot district will be ready for operations by the end of this month.

The new greenfield airport is located approximately 30 km from Rajkot city and on the Rajkot-Ahmadabad highway (NH-47).

The airport has been designed with the longest runway in the state, with a length of 3.5 km. The runway will be capable to serve AirBus-321 type of aircraft and the apron will be suitable for parking 14 aircraft.

Dholera Airport

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the Dholera International Airport project in Gujarat in June 2022.

The new greenfield airport in Dholera is planned to be operational by 2025-26 and is estimated to cost around Rs 1,305 crore to be built.

The airport is expected to experience initial passenger traffic of 3 lakh passengers per annum, besides cargo traffic of an estimated 20,000 tonnes in its opening year alone.

These projections are likely to rise even further, with passenger and freight traffic estimates reaching 23 lakh and 2,73,000 tonnes, respectively, in a period of 20 years.