Govt open to changing policy on airport location

The proposal for a new international airport in Greater Noida was first mooted by Rajnath Singh as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2001.

With the government’s stress on increasing air connectivity and developing more no-frills airports across the country, the newly appointed minister of state for civil aviation, Mahesh Sharma, indicated that the government will look to change the existing policy of a second airport not being allowed within 150-km from an existing airport.

While Sharma is mooting for a new international airport in the National Capital Region — at Jewar in Greater Noida — it is in violation of the “policy on airport infrastructure of India” that does not allow a second airport within a 150-km radius of an existing airport – the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi in this case.

Sharma said the infrastructure in Delhi is not sufficient, and a new airport close to the National Capital would help. “The new airport project in Jewar in Noida is an important project. The project has to be discussed in the wider interest of the nation,” he said on Wednesday.

A senior ministry official said there is a need to review the policy and the government could consider reducing the distance between an existing and a new airport in the same city to 100-km. The proposal for a new international airport in Greater Noida was first mooted by Rajnath Singh as the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2001.