Comments
Only 10 of the 109 operational airports presently owned and managed by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) are generating revenues, a report by the Committee of Estimates of the Civil Aviation Ministry tabled in the Lok Sabha said.
According to the report, the 10 profitable airports in FY21 include Port Blair, Visakhapatnam, Patna, Kandla, Porbandar, Srinagar, Pune, Juhu, Kanpur Chakeri, and BagdograAll the other 99-odd operational ones “were running in losses”.
ALSO READ:Why India’s airports haven’t taken off
The Committee, headed by Girish Bhalchandra Bapat, also noted that of 136 airports managed by the AAI, only 109 were operational and 27 are either under-construction or non-operational. Operational ones include customs run as well as domestic airports.
Committee recommendations
It has recommended immediate remedial measures be taken to reassess cost and “make use of technological solutions to bring efficiency at reduced costs in a time-bound manner”.
The Committee has urged the Ministry of Civil Aviation “to consider taking up some more greenfield airport projects on the lines of Jewar and Navi Mumbai International Airport” to ease heavy passenger volume in many airports facing congestion due to continuous growth of air passenger traffic.
According to the recommendations, the Ministry has been urged to explore “possibilities of acquiring land on the lines of NHAI, wherever feasible” but after consultation with experts and other stakeholders in order to help remove or minimise anomalies over the requirement of land for construction of airports.
Availability of land is seen as an impediment in the growth of the aviation sector and it needs to be “removed or minimised to certain extent”.
Recommendations also include having a separate set of rules or a policy to be framed for acquisition and compensation of land acquired specifically for airport projects.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.