Surat demands a proper airport

Businessmen to meet Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel

The Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce & Industry has sought a meeting with Union civil aviation minister Praful Patel, to press for a proper airport at Surat.

The Chamber president Dinesh Mandalaywala said that the lack of a proper airport, which can handle big aircrafts, is hampering the growth of business in Surat.

"The city contributes approximately Rs 5,000 crore by way of excise, customs, income tax, sales tax, service tax, and other taxes to the state and central governments but has no proper airport."

"Surat has become a major business hub in the last few years but it is only connected to Mumbai by air. As a support structure, the government has accepted a fully functional airport here but Surat needs to be connected to other places by air too. Also, only the smaller planes can land at the airport. Unless flights with national connectivity are made operative from Surat, the success of the airport would be unsatisfactory," he said.

"We have made several representations to the civil aviation ministry as well as the Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman, seeking the development of the Surat airport. However, AAI's contention is that facilities for landing of bigger aircraft and night landing, would be provided only if passenger traffic is available from Surat. AAI wants to develop business but without providing facilities, which is not possible," he added.

"We have written to the civil aviation minister Praful Patel and sought a meeting with him to personally discuss the issue. We would meet him and urge him to take serious steps for developing the basic infrastructure at the airport, and make sure that the Surat airport is functional in the true sense," Mandalaywala added.

Meanwhile, work on contructing the airport is in progress. "The work for strengthening, expansion and widening the runway at the airport is going on. The construction of a new terminal building, powerhouse, technical block, workshop and fire station is also on," Surat airport manager Ranveer Singh, told Business Standard.

Singh informed that it would at least take seven-eight months to develop basic infrastructure at the airport.

"The airport is not in a very good condition at present, but we believe it will be one of the best airports in Gujarat on completion," he added.