New aviation policy next year

NEW DELHI: The government will notify its new aviation policy by the first quarter of 2008 to facilitate creation of six regional airports by next year and 500 mega airports in the next 10 years.

The ministry is also developing a mechanism to set up multi-model merchant airports across the country. The policy will prescribe guidelines to the state governments, private investors and Airport Authority of India (AAI) for building the airports, said civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Wednesday.

“The government is formulating a policy which would allow entrepreneurs to set up merchant airports supported by the concept of aerotropolis. The matter was sent to the committee on infrastructure, which later referred it to the inter-ministerial group (IMG). The IMG had later prepared a broad set of guidelines for the policy,” Mr Patel told mediapersons at a conference organised by industry body Assocham.

The guidelines of the IMG have been sent to the committee on infrastructure which is headed by the prime minister. The policy would be sent to the cabinet once it is cleared and this entire process will take around 2-3 months, the minister said.

The new policy would have provisions to build 10 aerotropolis in 10 major metros and establish air linkages for passengers. Moreover, the number of operational airports would be increased to 80 in the next one year from 50 now, Mr Patel said.

Many state governments have shown interest in expanding their air strips through joint venture arrangements and the central government is looking at their proposals. Moreover, expansion would not only take place in major cities such as Delhi and Mumbai but equal attention would be paid to smaller cities which would result in increased job opportunities, he said.