The government of India has given go ahead in-principle for the construction plan of 18 Greenfield airports, estimated to cost to the tune of INR 300 billion to enable industrial advancement. A Greenfield airport is one which is built from the grassroots level on a new, undeveloped site.
The 18 airports given the clearance for construction are Mopa (Goa), Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg (Maharashtra), Bijapur (Karnataka), Gulbarga (Karnataka),
Hasan and Shimoga (Karnataka), Kannur (Kerala), Pakyong (Sikkim), Karaikal (Puducherry), Dholera (Gujarat) and Bhogapuram (Andhra Pradesh). However, Greenfield airport projects at places like Dholera (Gujarat) and Bhogapuram (Andhra Pradesh) were given the nod in the decision taken by the government dated December 28, 2015.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha commented in a written reply in Rajya Sabha that for construction of new Greenfield airports, execution of project including finalization of project cost and financing arrangement is the sole responsibility of the respective airport promoters.
The management has given ‘site clearance’ for five other Greenfield airports. These include Muchiwara, Ludhiana Airport in Punjab, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Alwar in Rajasthan and Kothagudem in Telangana.
The estimated framework for construction of the airports will depend on factors varying on an individualistic operational level.
India’s first Greenfield airport, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, was set up in Hyderabad under the public-private partnership initiative. The Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, operational in Durgapur, West Bengal, is the country’s first private Greenfield airport.
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