AAI lines up Rs 98K cr capital outlay

New Delhi: The Airports Authority of India (AAI) and other airport developeRshave targeted capital outlay of nearly Rs98,000 crore in the airport sector in the next five years for expansion and modification of existing terminals, new terminals and strengthening of runways, among other activities, the Parliament was told on Thursday.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Gen VK Singh (retd) told the Lok Sabha, in a written reply, that upgrade or modernisation of airports' infrastructure is a continuous process and is undertaken by the AAI and other airport developers from time to time depending on the availability of land, commercial viability, socio-economic considerations, traffic demand/willingness of airlines to operate to/from such airports.

The reply said that the project costs of nine operationalised Greenfield airports are: Durgapur Rs670 crore, Shirdi Rs320 crore, Pakyong Rs553.53 core, Kannur Rs2,342 crore, Kalaburagi Rs175.57 crore, Orvakal (Kurnool) Rs187 crore, Sindhudurg Rs520 crore, Kushinagar Rs448 crore, and Donyi Polo, Itanagar Rs646 crore.

Moreover, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Guwahati, and Ahmedabad airports have earmarked a capital expenditure of Rs10,550 crore, Rs13,552 crore, Rs6,288 crore, Rs1,383 crore, Rs567 crore, Rs1,232 crore and Rs376 crore, respectively, for the period 2019-25. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has issued a related Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) to lay down requirements for aerodromes infrastructure.