Aviation Ministry mulls policy changes

Hyderabad, March 27

The Civil Aviation Ministry is mulling doing away with the 150-km radius clause to allow a new airport. Besides, the requirement to have the Union Cabinet nod to open an airport or strip might also go in the upcoming greenfield policy.

Waking up to the connectivity bottlenecks in Hyderabad and Bangalore, the Ministry has decided to make airport connectivity a serious issue by mandating it to take up connectivity projects simultaneously with the airport projects.

“The Union Government would provide up to 30 per cent of the cost of the connectivity project to the State Government. Normally, connectivity involves investments nearly double the cost of the airport,” Mr K.N. Shrivastava, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, told Business Line. He was here to take part in a session on ‘Experiences in Airport Development’ at the two-day international conclave Infrastructure Today. “We have also understood that instead of having very big airports, it is better to have small and medium airports,” he said.

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