UP to press for Taj airport hub

The Uttar Pradesh industries department has pulled its socks up to convince the Centre for giving nod for its proposed Taj International Airport and Aviation Hub (TIAH) at Jewar in Greater Noida.

According to the latest report from the Airport Authority of India (AAI), in the next five years aircraft traffic would rise by 17.9 per cent, passengers by 22 per cent and cargo by 7.4 per cent. Thereafter, the growth rate would be 14 per cent, 18.3 per cent and 6.6 per cent respectively for aircraft, passenger and cargo, in the country.

Industry officials point that if Los Angeles with a population of just 13 million has 6 airports, London with a population of barely 8.5 million has 5 airports, Moscow with population of 10 million has 3 airports, then the National Capital Region (NCR) with a population of 37 million can have two airports.

"Moreover, the expected passenger traffic by the year 2015-16 would be 108.32 million (according to AAI projections). The figures itself explain the need of another airport for the NCR," said an official.

Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the joint venture of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) and the GMR group engaged in the modernisation and expansion of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, has shown concern over the new project and feels it is not required.

DIAL would reach its projected capacity to handle 100 million passengers per year by 2026.

However, the UP government feels the gestation period of the DIAL project is much longer as the traffic congestion will start rising in the country by 2015-16 itself.

The UP government projections prepared by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) say that traffic at Delhi without UP's airport would rise to 99.02 million by 2016 and to 152.35 million by 2021.

With UP's international airport, traffic at Delhi in 2016 would still remain 91.1 million and would go up to 135.77 million by 2021.

"This means that even with an airport in Greater Noida, Delhi would not be able to handle the projected traffic growth by 2021," said the official.

The DIAL has argued that under the airport infrastructure policy of 1997 no new airport should be developed within an aerial distance of 150 km of the existing airport, whereas Jewar is just 68 km from the IGI airport.

But the UP industry department source disproves saying, "The AAI says that 'normally' there should not be two airports within this distance. But also adds that if a new focus area comes with its own demand and viability or where the existing airport is not able to meet the demand, then there can be two airports within this distance."