Indian Aviation News: New developments in Indian airport infrastructure for 2012-2013

The total investment on Airports Authority of India projects has been pegged at Rs 2, 100 crore. The Prime Minister felt that the targets set are ambitious and impressive and they are a significant scale up over earlier performance.

The major developments are follows:

·   An airline policy has been formulated to operationalise airline hubs at Delhi and Chennai by the next fiscal. This is due to fear of loss of outbound air traffic from India to adjoining airports such as Dubai and Singapore.

·   In the next fiscal, three new greenfield projects will be awarded and these are Navi Mumbai, Goa and Kannur.

·   By July-end, additional PPP projects will be finalised for 10-12 existing airports and 10-12 greenfield airports. These will be awarded during the year.

·   Soon, work on Itanagar airport would commence to boost air connectivity in north-east India.

·   Lucknow, Varanasi, Coimbatore, Trichy and Gaya are the likely locations where three to four international airports could be declared this year.