Maharashtra upbeat on airports - Phaltan Airport Development

Maharashtra upbeat on airports : Pragnya Pandey

The Maharashtra civil aviation department is focusing on land acquisition as the key to its major aviation infrastructure development programme in the state. Currently, Maharashtra has 23 airports and airstrips out of which 15 are owned by the state government.According to Sanjay Ubale, Secretary (Civil Aviation) Maharashtra, the government was in talks with farmers and other industry associations for land acquisition in the state. "The main idea is to involve the farmers and associations as shareholders in future projects, and make them pool in land for airport and real estate development," he said.The move is significant since land acquisition is, perhaps, the biggest hurdle for any airport development project. In Maharashtra itself, inability to acquire land is impeding the Mumbai international airport modernisation project. The private developer - a consortium led by the GVK Group - has not been able to acquire even an inch of land ever since the airport was handed over in late 2006.Airport development in Maharashtra is making good progress given that the state civil aviation department has already earmarked about 5,500 acres of land, out of which 70 per cent is in possession. Consultants have been sought for advising on the remaining endeavour. The recent move of involving landowners as shareholders might only expedite the land acquisition process, it is felt.With Maharashtra Airport Development Company as the nodal agency, the state has planned to development airports in seven cities - Shirdi, Solapur, Phaltan, Dhulia, Karad, Jalgaon and Chandrapur - through private sector participation. While the Shirdi airport will be a greenfield one, the other involves upgrade of existing airstrips into full-fledged airports with scheduled flight operations.Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has been entrusted with the task of developing an international airport in Pune, once again with private sector participation. MIDC and Airports Authority of India will be minority partners with 13 per cent equity stake each in the project. Pre-project work is also progressing on the greenfield Navi Mumbai airport with City & Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco) being the nodal agency. To be developed with a completion cost of Rs 10,000 crore on a 1,140 hectare plot near Panvel, the airport project will adopt the public-private partnership route.These international airports are expected to decongest Mumbai International Airport that is feared to reach saturation in 2013. By 2010, the airport is expected to handle 40 million passengers as against 22.24 million handled in 2006-07. Studies have indicated that passenger traffic in Mumbai would reach 27.5 million by 2010, moving further to 40 million by 2015.[Progress of Amritsar Airport: Section page Trasport; Decentralising airport projects: Section page Edit]
[January 28 - February 3, 2008]


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