Airports Authority of India : Indian Aviation: Marching ahead

By A Correspondent | New Delhi | India

By A Correspondent

New Delhi | India

The aviation sector in India had witnessed predominant growth since 2014.Indian Aviation had completed double-digit growth in passenger traffic in 2019, which was unprecedented and historical. With this background, the Ministry of Civil Aviation unveiled vision-2040 for aviation in January 2019. The brief of this is: – “India may have around 200 operational airports. It’s 31 top cities may have two airports and cities of Delhi and Mumbai three each. The incremental land requirement is expected to be around 1.50 lakh acres and the capital investment is expected to be around USD 40-50 billion. The passenger traffic is expected to grow size fold to around 2.2 billion movements. Its commercial fleet is likely to increase from 622 in March 2018 to around 2359 in March 2024. Air Cargo throughout is projected to quadruple to appx 17 million tons in FY 2040. India will gradually become a transshipment hub for entire South Asia. By 2040, India will assemble nearly 70% of its commercial aircraft demand. A significant course correction in policies, taxation and customs procedures will enable growth of India as a global MRO hub by 2040, handling nearly 90% of the MRO requirements of large Indian carriers. There could be over 200 amphibious aircraft located across India’s coastline and water bodies”.

The leadership of our Government has put forward the dream of making India a USD 5 trillion economy in 5 years. For this the role of airports is very significant. As per available data, Air travel and Tourism, directly and indirectly, contribute about 10% of global GDP and support 330 million jobs worldwide.

In the last five years AAI has spent around ₹18,000 Crores and developed the following:

• Greenfield Airport at Pakyong, Jharsuguda and Kushinagar
• Extension of existing Terminal Buildings or construction of new Terminal Buildings at Chandigarh, Tirupati, Khajurao, Vadodara, Vijayawada, Goa, Jammu, Belagavi, Hubbali, Kishangarh, Gorakhpur and Calicut
• New Civil Enclave at Prayagraj and Hindon
• New parking bays at various airports for parking 110 aircrafts
• Expansion of Runway system at Vadodara, Chennai, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Calicut, Kolkata, Trivandrum, Amritsar, Tezu, Surat, Rajahmundry, Raipur, Hubbali, Belagavi, Guwahati and Varanasi
• Water Aerodromes at Sabarmati water front and Statue of Unity
• Rolling out of GAGAN satellite navigation system
• Implementation of Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM), nationwide.
• Installation of new RADARS at Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore, Imphal, Guwahati, Chennai, Lucknow and Amritsar
• Installation of ASMGCS at Lucknow, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Guwahati and Jaipur for ground surveillance during poor visibility
• Let us have a brief look into the major steps taken by AAI to increase the capacity of infrastructure during 2020-25 with capital outlay of ₹20,000 Crore
• New Greenfield airports at Deoghar, Hollongi, Hirasar, Dholera
• Expansion of Airports at Ayodhya, Jabalpur, Chitrakoot, Tuticorin, Mirpur, Kushinagar and Kolhapur
• New Terminal Buildings at Agartala, Chennai, Dehradun, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Guwahati, Trichy, and Vijayawada
• Expansion of Terminal Buildings at Visakhapatnam, Surat and Goa
• New Civil Enclaves at Adampur, Darbhanga, Bareilly and Kanpur
• Water Aerodromes at Shatrunjay Dam, Guwahati River front, Umrangso, Nagarjuna Sagar Dam and various islands of A&N and Lakshadweep.

Similar steps are being taken by the State Governments and private players at various airports. Not only in capacity enhancement, but also in enhancing operational efficiency, improving connectivity, enhancing customer satisfaction, improving the ease of doing business and betterment of airport management, various steps are being taken by Government.

While highlighting the progress made by the Indian Civil Aviation sector, the Hon’ble Prime Minister is his Independence Day 2021 Speech said, “Today, the speed with which new airports are being constructed in the country and the way UDAN scheme is connecting the far-flung areas…it is unprecedented.”

“Today we are seeing how better air connectivity is giving wings to the people’s dreams,” he stated. To conclude we can say that to fulfill the vision of our leadership, there is a need to have integrated planning of all modes of transports. “Atmanirbhar Bharat” will provide the philosophical light and various policies of the Government will act as stimulants. The National Master Plan covering all the projects of different modes of transport will help us to have such integrated macro planning so as to have optimum resource utilization and better connectivity. With this and with our concerted efforts we will be able to cover the lost time due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Let us imbibe the proverbial quote that “Sometimes you have to take a step back, then use that step for a quantum jump,” and accelerate our actions accordingly.

(Shilpa Bichitra | Special Edition | 2021)