New airport boon for Saurashtra

Ahmedabad: With Prime Minister Narendra Modi laying the foundation stone for the Rs 2,500 crore greenfield airport, the long-pending demand of Rajkot businessmen and citizens is becoming a reality.

The airport near Hirasar, 30 km from Rajkot, is expected to become operational in the next five years. At present, people from Saurashtra have to travel all the way to Ahmedabad to board flights for abroad. Rajkot, the commercial capital of Saurashtra, is a home to auto parts, engineering goods and imitation jewellery while near-by Morbi is the biggest ceramic cluster in Asia.

In July 2017, the union ministry of civil aviation granted approval and 'site clearance' for the new Rajkot International Airport that will be spread over 2500 acres

Shivlal Barasia, president of Rajkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) said "We have been demanding a new airport for several years now. This will give a major boost to our business and there are many clients who avoid visiting Rajkot for lack of air connectivity."

The present domestic airport is right the middle of the city and has no scope of expansion. The present air strip can cater to only small aircrafts. Rajkot currently has five daily flights — four to Mumbai and one to Delhi.

According to AAI, the new airport will be developed in phases to maintain operational continuity. The area of the building will be done depending of the final passenger capacity, and cargo traffic calculations. The overall capacity of the completed terminal will be balanced with present days assessment of future maximum runway capacity.

Guruprasad Mahapatra, chairman, Airport Authority of India (AAI), told reporters that 4.11 lakh people use the present airport ever year. "The passenger traffic is expected to touch 6.5 lakh once the new airport becomes functional. This is expected to reach the full capacity of 23 lakh passengers by 2030."

He said the AAI received 730 acres of land for the airport from Rajkot district administration and remaining land will be handed over to AAI in different phases.

"Since 40% of the NRIs from Gujarat belong to Saurashtra region, most of the traffic will be diverted to Rajkot from Ahmedabad," the AAI chairman said. He also expected 10-12% growth in passenger traffic per year.