In a move to bring down the cost of flying, the government has proposed developing no-frills airports. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has urged the civil aviation ministry to develop five such no-frills airports during the current fiscal year.
According to the blueprint prepared by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), these small airports will come up in small towns with rudimentary facilities.
AAI further plans to minimize the cost of building and operating these airports. These airports will lack facilities like lack conveyor belts, arrival lounges, automatic baggage check-in counters and even air-conditioning which are available at the swanky airports at Delhi and Mumbai. Further there will be only one air traffic control (ATC) tower catering to a number of such airports.
“We plan to have one ATC tower that will be able to guide planes for more than one such airport. Not every airport would require full-fledged ATC since there won’t be so many flights,” said the AAI official.
The security will be taken care of by police personnel from the respective states and harnessing solar energy to power the airports, adds a senior AAI official.
The cost, with such initiatives, is expected to be very low and are estimated to come up for as low as Rs50 crore for every airport. These airports will be built in the form of modules, which means a block can be added if there is surge in demand.
EPC World News Bureau
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