Five new airports to come up in two years: Praful Patel

Five greenfield airports would come up in Karnataka and Sikkim in the next two years, said Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel Thursday.

In reply to a question by Congress parliamentarian Naveen Jindal, the minister told the Lok Sabha that four new airports would come up at Shimoga, Gulbarga, Bijapur and Hassan in Karnataka, and another at Pakyong in Sikkim.

“These airports are scheduled to come up in the next two years,” Patel said, adding that seven more greenfield airports have been accorded "in-principle" approval.

These airports would come up at Navi Mumbai and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Mopa (Goa), Kannur (Kerala), Durgapur (West Bengal), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and Gwalior (Madhya Pradesh).

Patel said his ministry has also received proposals for nine new airports at Chakan, Shirdi and Solapur in Maharashtra, Kushinagar and Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Ludhiana (Punjab), Karaikal (Puducherry), Paladi (Rajasthan) and Cheitu (Nagaland).

Currently, there are two greenfield international airports, in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

The minister said his ministry has received a proposal for setting up a cargo airport at Jhajjar in Haryana, Jindal's home state.

The government had in April last year cleared the new greenfield airport policy, under which proposals to set up greenfield airports within 150 km of an existing civilian airport would be examined on a case-by-case basis.

It would not require prior approval of the central government and the aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, would grant licence.

Last updated on Jul 16^th, 2009 at 19:16 pm IST--IANS