Agra may get international airport

With Agra seeing a record number of international flights this winter, the need for an airport of international status is being increasingly felt.

According to the latest proposal being prepared by the Agra administration, the airport will require at least 1,700 acres of land for the construction of a minimum of two intersecting air strips and a terminal building of international standards having enough room to accommodate transit lounges, duty-free shops, customs houses, and passenger traffic.

The proposed Agra international airport will be independent of the control of the Indian Air Force that presently governs entries and exits to the domestic airport located deep inside the Agra Air Force base, sharing air strips with the Air Force.

The UP chief minister had announced the government's plans to construct an international airport in Agra. Soon afterwards, Agra District Magistrate Sanjay Prasad had sent a detailed report highlighting the fact that the new airport could be constructed by sharing the existing infrastructure including landing-takeoff-parking facilities with the Agra Air Force base and that the terminal building could be constructed just outside the base.

However, the project was rejected at the very outset as it was found that the construction of a terminal building away from the landing strip could create many practical problems.

After the initial project was rejected, state government officials held a meeting with the Airports Authority of India and other concerned officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation in Agra on 16th December, 2005.

In the meeting, it was decided that the construction of the airport, including the air-strips and terminal building would be done by the private sector, strictly on a build-operate-transfer agreement at a fresh piece of land thatwould be located close to the Agra-Delhi highway.

During the meeting, AAI officials had asked for proposals from the state government for the land it was offering for the construction of the airport, to enable it to conduct a feasibility study on that location.

Accordingly, Ashok Kumar, divisional commissioner, Agra asked the district magistrates of both Agra and Mathura districts to prepare fresh project reports for the airport, with atleast 1,700 acres of land that was located outside the urban areas.

But the proposal for the new airport has already begun seeing opposition from the aviation industry, which is pointing out the apparent "wastefulness" of constructing another international airport so close to the existing international airport at Delhi.

According to sources, only a few years back the Airport Authority of India had spent several crores on the upgrade and extension of available facilities at the domestic airport in Agra, which did not see more than a couple of flights a day, for most of the year.

Now the construction of another airport, of international standards, was not prudent unless the airport offered parking and hanger facility to the private airlines, which could serve to ease off the space-crunch from the airport at Delhi, while increasing the in and outbound traffic on the new airport at Agra.