Minister Jayant Sinha informs Rajya Sabha about AAI's airport development and modernisation activities
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday about the various steps being taken to upgrade and modernise airports across the country.
To develop Guwahati Airport as an inter-regional hub, AAI has constructed three hangars at Guwahati Airport.
Construction of hangars has commenced at Dibrugarh and Imphal airports and tenders have been floated for award of work for construction of hangar at Agartala airport, the Minister said.
Talking about international airports in Madhya Pradesh, the Minister said that Bhopal, Indore and Khajuraho airports have already been upgraded to international standards with new integrated terminal buildings and other associated work.
AAI owns and maintains eight airports in the state, including five operational airports at Bhopal, Jabalpur, Khajuraho, Indore and Civil Enclave at Gwalior and three non-operational airports at Khandwa, Panna and Satna.
AAI has also finalized the scope of work for extension of existing runway, construction of new terminal building and other allied works for operations of A-320 type of aircraft at Jabalpur Airport.
About modernisation of small airports in Tamil Nadu, especially in small cities, the Minister said that AAI has undertaken various modernisation and upgradation works at different airports in the state.
These include construction of new domestic terminal building to handle 470 peak hour passengers and conversion of old terminal building to international cargo terminal at Tiruchirappalli Airport, re-carpeting of existing runway/taxiway at Tuticorin Airport, construction of new integrated terminal building to cater to 700 peak hour passengers and conversion of part of old domestic terminal building as common user domestic cargo terminal at Madurai Airport and extension and modification of old integrated terminal building to cater to 625 peak hour passengers at Coimbatore Airport.
The Minister also informed the Rajya Sabha that the Gaggal Airport in Kangra and Bhuntar Airport in Kullu in Himachal Pradesh are suitable for operations of ATR-72 and ATR-42 aircraft, respectively, with load penalty in fair weather conditions.
In order to make the airports suitable for operations of aircraft without load penalty, AAI has projected land requirements of 153 acres and 27.77 hectares, respectively, for extension of runway and other allied works.
Further development works are subject to acquisition and handing over of land free from all encumbrances and free of cost by the Himachal Pradesh government to AAI.
Image: AAI website
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