AAI earmarks Rs 250cr for airport development

Times of India: Surat: Thursday, July 26, 2018.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) has earmarked Rs250 crore for development of Surat airport so that international operations can be expanded from here.

In a document sought under Right to Information (RTI) Act, AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra had written to Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) in May stating that necessary fund allocation for the development of Surat airport has been proposed.

At present, the airport handles about 36 flight movements per day to various destinations, operated by SpiceJet, AirAsia and Air India. Once IndiGo commences services in near future, flight movements could go up to 45. About 2,300 passengers travel daily to and from Surat airport.

Capacity to handle landings, take-offs and passengers movements at the airport is posing a big challenge to airport authorities and this could be further hit when IndiGo launches five flights from August 16.

According to details sought under the RTI Act, the estimate of civil and electrical work was sent in July 2017. The revised scope of work and drawings of terminal building was sent to AAI headquarters in February 2018. Again, AAI headquarters sent the revised estimate for the terminal building expansion in March 2018.

RTI Activist Rajesh Modi said, “It is good that the AAI has earmarked Rs250 crore for airport development. But there needs to be clarity on whether the earmarked funds are solely for terminal expansion. This is because terminal expansion is the need of the hour.”

With increase in air connectivity and passenger traffic, the terminal building of Surat airport is bursting at its seams. The terminal remains so much congested that passengers do not have enough chairs to sit in the waiting area.

As check-ins are done an hour ahead of the scheduled departure, passengers have to literally stand as the limited seats remain occupied. The situation is worse when passengers of two separate flights are stacked together in the waiting area.

As per a rough estimate, the present capacity to handle passengers at the terminal building is 2 lakh per annum. Ironically, there are around 8 lakh passengers travelling to and from Surat airport per annum.