http://www.ndtv.com/money/templatebusiness.asp?slug=Govt+may+allow+second+ai rport+near+Delhi&template=aviationpolicy&callid=5&id=25803
'Second airport near Delhi may be permitted' ----------------------------------------------------------Saturday, June 25, 2005 (Gwalior): The government may permit construction of another airport near Delhi, outside a 75 km radius of the existing Indira Gandhi International Airport. This is likely to be done by amending the existing rules that prohibit a second airport within a 150 km boundary of an existing one. "We may allow construction of a domestic airport outside the 75 km radius of Delhi airport. But an international airport can be built only outside the existing 150 km boundary," Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters. "We cannot disallow a second airport near Delhi when Mumbai would have two. Most of our (aviation) traffic are concentrated in these two cities", he said. Airports revamp The change in the aviation rules would be reflected in the transaction document, being readied by the Civil Aviation Ministry for the bidders for modernisation and restructuring of Delhi and Mumbai airports, he said. The amendment would enable smaller or single-aisle planes operating on domestic routes to land at the new airport, which may come up at Greater NOIDA in Uttar Pradesh. The move would redistribute air traffic to the secondary airport. International operations generally involve large wide-bodied and twin-aisle aircraft which require a larger clearance area for landing and take-off. Patel said the new airport could also have facilities specific to the operations of low-cost carriers, which require a much faster turnaround. ------ This means that Mopa can only be a domestic airport, not an international one for A380s as proposed by ICAO last month in Indian Express. It also means that fourlaning the north-south Pernem-Polem Highway will have to be an integral part of any plan to build an airport at Mopa (so that Dabolim can be linked to Mopa by high-speed surface transport).
