Centre mulls 'air grid' for better flight connectivity

The Union government is planning to develop an 'air grid' for better air connectivity in the country, Praful Patel, minister of state for civil aviation, said.

Laying the foundation stone for a Rs 95-crore integrated terminal at the Visakhapatnam airport here today, the minister said the Indian civil aviation sector witnessed about 51 per cent growth in the last two years and about Rs 2,00,000 crore investments were likely over the next 10 years in the sector.

Like IT and BPO sectors, civil aviation too would open up massive employment opportunities, he added.

"Currently, we have about 400 airstrips across the country. But many of them either remain unutilised or abandoned completely. Now is the time to develop 'air gird' in the country for better utilisation of all the infrastructure," he said.

As only six metro airports are handling most of the air traffic in the country, the Centre has identified 35 non-metro airports, including the one at Visakhapatnam, for development, according to the minister.

Patel said that the Visakhapatnam airport would get international status by 2008. "If the state government allots sufficient land, the Airports Authority of India will take up the runway expansion by 2000 feet at Rajahmundry (Madhurapudi airport)." Union minister of state for Defence M M Pallam Raju, Union minister of state for mines T Subbarami Reddy, parliament member and former chief minister N Janardhan Reddy participated in the programme.