Centre sanctions Rs 1,383 crore for expansion of Guwahati airport

From a Correspondent

New Delhi, May 2: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday has sanctioned a sum of Rs 1383 crore for expansion and upgradation of integrated terminals at Guwahati airport.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also given its approval for expansion and upgradation of integrated terminals at Chennai & Lucknow Airports too at a cost of Rs.2467 crore and Rs 1232 crore respectively.

The New Terminal Building at Guwahati airport shall have an area of 102500 sqm to handle combined annual capacity (old and new terminals) of 9 mppa. The building would cater to the requirement of passenger growth up to the year 2026-27. This will encourage investment & tourism in NER with thrust on ‘Act East’ Policy.

The development follows the enhanced trust that was given for the infrastructure sector in the Union Budget 2018-19.

Towards this endeavour, Government of India has brought out National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP), which is the stepping stone to provide robust air connectivity throughout the length and breadth of our country. The Policy also envisages to create an ecosystem which encourages economic growth of the country, by enabling people to connect with ease at an affordable cost, through Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS), aptly titled as UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik).

The country has witnessed phenomenal growth rate in the range of 18 to 20 percent in the last 3 years. According to IATA Traffic Study, India, at 7th position as of now, is likely to take 3rd position by 2023-24 by overtaking UK, Japan, Spain & Germany. The current rate of the growth in domestic aviation sector of India is the highest globally.

Airports Authority of India is in the process of implementing plans for development of infrastructure to meet growing aviation demand by creating additional capacity at AAI Airports like, Chennai, Guwahati, Lucknow, Agartala, Patna, Srinagar, Pune, Trichy, Vijayawada, Port Blair, Jaipur, Mangalore, Dehradun, Jabalpur, Kolhapur, Goa, Rupsi, Leh, Calicut, Imphal, Varanasi & Bhubaneswar with a capex of Rs.20178 Crores in the next 4 to 5 years.

AAI has already awarded the works at Agartala, Calicut, Port Blair towards construction of new state-of-the-art integrated terminals and is in the process to immediately approve the works for upgradation and expansion of capacity at Chennai, Lucknow and Guwahati Airports, at a cost of Rs.2467 crores, Rs.1383 crores and Rs.1232 crores, respectively. Similarly, upgradation of airside capacity by way of strengthening and extension of runways, construction of new apron bays has been taken up to cater to the demand from airline operators who have placed confirmed orders for almost 900 aircrafts in the coming 10 years.