Proposal to grant intl status to Raipur airport found not

The Chhattisgarh government's proposal to grant international status to Swami Vivekananda Airport in Raipur was found not "viable" by the Centre, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
The request from the state Government to declare Raipur's Swami Vivekananda Airport was received by the Centre in July 2013 and it was "examined" (by the Union Government), Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply to a Member's question in this regard.
"It was observed that the traffic had not picked up at some of the recently declared international airports such as Imphal, Bhubaneswar, etc," Sharma said.

Moreover, expected international traffic potential at Raipur airport is also low, " thus the proposal was not found viable," Sharma said.
Both Bhubanewswar and Imphal were declared international airport in October 2013.