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Sky is the limit !

The passenger traffic at all airports in India is likely to almost double, according to the planning commission, from 23.40 million in 1996-97 to 40.55 million in 2001-02. Domestic passenger traffic is expected to touch 52.3 million; international traffic around 32.4 million and cargo about one million tons. The Airport authority of India (AAI) estimates that by 2012, Indian airports will handle 100 million passengers. AAI has control over 86 airports and 26 "civilian enclaves" in addition to five international airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Thiruvananthapuram. The existing aviation infrastructure can support a 20 per cent rise in passenger traffic and a 10 per cent growth in cargo. This effectively means a saturation of Indian airports over the next few years.
In India though the number of airports is more than some of the countries in the neighborhood like china, these are under utilized and under developed. Over the last 10 years, the government has invested more than US $ 315 million in the modernization of five international airports. The modernization measures include improvement in navigational equipment, upgradation of terminals and passenger support facilities.

Traffic patterns for 1996-97 show that 73 per cent of traffic is handled by the international airports, resulting in bottlenecks in the terminal buildings.

At present the government policy allows 76 per cent equity in airport projects through the automatic approval route and 100 per cent on a case to case basis. A core group has been set up by the ministry of civil aviation and it includes representatives from the IDFC and ICICI, for organizing finances for new projects. The planning commission has set a target of US $ 817.6 million for airport development during the Ninth plan period, 1997-2002. This includes an investment target of US $ 473.57 million for developing international airports with the emphasis on capacity, demand and augmentation of passenger terminals at the five international airports. The planning commission lays emphasis on capacity augmentation at the terminals in Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai and Thiruvananthapuram in view of the growth in traffic. The ministry has identified 28 unused airports to be offered to state governments on very attractive terms. These include:

Hasan and Mysore in Karnataka
Khandwa, Panna, Bilaspur and Satna in Madhya Pradesh
Vellore in Tamil Nadu
Jhansi and Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh
Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu

The AAI, till the year 2002 has projected funds requirement of US $ 831 million for airport infrastructure. These funds are meant for:

New terminal buildings at Delhi and Mumbai (US $ 237.4 million )
Cargo complexes at international airports (US $ 35.7 million ) Runways and taxiways at
airports other than international (US $ 83.3 million )
New communication/navigation equipment (US $ 166.6 million )

These investments of AAI are in addition to the expected investment of US $ 2.3 billion in each of the two major airport projects at Bangalore and Mumbai

Navigational Systems
Fingers were pointed towards the adequacy of modern navigational systems at Indian airports after the Charkhi-Dadri mid-air collision in 1996. Nearly US $ 1.2 billion have to be injected till the year 2010 for navigational equipment and navigational programme.

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