Work on Gujarat's Dholera airport likely to commence soon

The work on the much-awaited greenfield Dholera International Airport (DIACL) in Gujarat may commence soon following DIACL deciding to fast track the project, which has been hanging fire since 2012, a release said Wednesday. The Rs 2,000 crore airport is set to come up in a greenfield city under the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project at Dholera. It is to be built over a period of four years and expected to decongest the existing Ahmedabad airport once commissioned.

DIACL, at its first meeting Tuesday after the reconstitution of the company's board following the Airport Authority of India (AAI) picking up majority 51 per cent in it, also said that the AAI has assured of providing the necessary technical inputs to the concerned state departments as per the requirements of new greenfield airport. The Gujarat government owns 33 per cent stake in DIACL, while the rest 16 per cent stake is with the National Industrial Corridor Development and implementation Trust.

The first board meeting of the DIACL held Tuesday under the AAI Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra decided to expedite the airport project, which will allow the company to commence work on it soon, the release said. Along with the board meeting, a project review meeting was also held which was attended by senior AAI officials on the plans to implement the airport project on a fast-track basis, it added.


During the meeting, the AAI officials also requested the state departments to provide the requisite support for infrastructures such as road connectivity, electricity supply, water supply, flood mitigation work and earth reclamation for the airport project, the release said. The proposed airport will cater to the regions of Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Nadiad, Kheda and Anand.