Centre may allow two airports in 150km radius

Hyderabad: The civil aviation ministry plans to revisit the condition that no additional airport operations would be permitted within 150km radius of an existing airport, said K.N. Srivastava, joint secretary in the ministry.
Taking to reporters on the sidelines of an international infrastructure conference here on Wednesday, he said the Greenfield Airport Policy scheduled to be announced shortly could have scope for two airports within 150 km radius if required.
On greenfield airports, he said the ministry has learnt several lessons from the experiences of the new international airports at Hyderabad and Bangalore, and is considering a proposal to make infrastructure pertaining to airports’ connectivity a part of the airport development project.
The new airport at Hyderabad has commenced operations and the one at Bangalore is all set to begin operations, but both cities are yet to address the issue of connectivity to airports.
Admitting that infrastructure for connectivity involves investments nearly double that of airport development, Srivastava said the Union government is considering a proposal to provide up to 30% of the cost of connectivity infrastructure to the state governments as viability gap funding.
27/03/08 C.R. Sukumar/Livemint

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Categories: Airports Mar 2008, New Mar 2008