Navsari to house int’l airport bigger than Surat’s

Times of India: Surat: Tuesday, July 10, 2018.

It’s official now. Navsari district is all set to house the new state-of-the-art international airport in the next couple of years.

The state government and Airports Authority of India (AAI) have started scouting for land for the new airport in Navsari district. This has been revealed in information sought under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

In the minutes of the meeting a copy is of which is with TOI held under the chairmanship of chief secretary J N Singh and AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra it was decided that the government will identify three to four sites within a radius of 40 km from the Surat airport to develop the new facility.

Once the sites are finalized, the state government will place them before AAI for selection of the final location.

The government is looking for about 2,000 acres of land within 40 km radius of the Surat airport. Ubhrat in Jalalpore district falls within the 40km radius and the land confirming the development of the airport is already available with the state government.

The proposed site is about 35 kilometers away from Surat, but the distance could be reduced to about 15-20 km by constructing a bridge over Mindhola river. The site is also just 15-20km far from Navsari and the airport facilities will serve the twin cities.

Many important projects have been planned under directions of Gujarat government and locations of all these projects are either in air funnel of the Surat airport runway or near the airport and hence affected due to restrictions laid down by guidelines of AAI.

The projects mentioned by the district collectorate include the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) at Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) City with proposed height of 73 metres and available height as per AAI at 54 metres, Multi Modal Transportation Hub (MMTH) at Surat railway station with proposed height of 200 metres and height as per AAI at 100 metres, high-rise multi-storied government office building for Surat Municipal Corporation with 180 metre height and available according to AAI at 100 metres etc.

Sources said that the big airport in Navsari is likely to be announced before 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The Surat airport will be operated to cater to domestic travel and limited international operations, till the new airport is ready and operational in Navsari.