Two-and-a-half years after the completion of a new $17 million (approximately Rs 111.18 crore) terminal building, the airport in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan stands empty.
Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of an airport big enough to handle more than 300,000 travellers a year, with parking bays for three 180-seater narrow-body jets.
The government has spent more than $50 million (approximately Rs 327 crore) since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights - white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
While the main hubs are bursting at the seams, slowing airlines' ability to expand in a vast country where they should be supporting economic growth.
"They (the government) need to realise it's not a case of 'build the airport and we will come'," said Sanjiv Kapoor, chief operating officer at SpiceJet. The private sector airline last year ceased flying to a new airport in the southern Indian city of Mysore because of insufficient demand.
19/08/15 Reuters/Daily News & Analysis
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Not a single passenger has passed through the gates of an airport big enough to handle more than 300,000 travellers a year, with parking bays for three 180-seater narrow-body jets.
The government has spent more than $50 million (approximately Rs 327 crore) since 2009 on eight airports that do not receive scheduled flights - white elephants that are a reminder of the pitfalls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he bets on an infrastructure drive to fuel growth.
While the main hubs are bursting at the seams, slowing airlines' ability to expand in a vast country where they should be supporting economic growth.
"They (the government) need to realise it's not a case of 'build the airport and we will come'," said Sanjiv Kapoor, chief operating officer at SpiceJet. The private sector airline last year ceased flying to a new airport in the southern Indian city of Mysore because of insufficient demand.
19/08/15 Reuters/Daily News & Analysis
