Govt clears expansion of Delhi’s IGI Airport

Tribune News Service

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New Delhi, June 8

With passenger traffic growing every year, the government has cleared the plans for the expansion of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi. The expansion would see the addition of a fourth runway as well as increase in its passenger-handling capacity with the addition of another terminal.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said the Delhi international airport has set a target of having the fourth runway in three years. This would increase the facility for cargo as well as for services to all domestic and international passengers, he said, adding the plans had been cleared.

He was speaking at a function organised last night by Delhi International Airport Ltd. (DIAL) to felicitate its stakeholders for making the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport as the world’s number one airport in the 25-40 million passengers per annum category for the second consecutive year.

The international airport in Delhi is operated by Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd (DIAL) — a public private partnership where diversified group GMR, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Germany’s Fraport are the stakeholders.

It has been recognised as the number one airport in this category by the Airport Council International (ACI).

Several top ministers, including Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathy Raju, his deputy Dr Mahesh Sharma and the Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, attended the function.

Delhi Airport’s top ranking worldwide among the airports handling around 40 million passengers annually, according to recent survey, was part of “India infrastructure story growing laterally”, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said.

“We are now at a turning point in India’s infrastructure. This year alone, there are plans to build 25 regional airports,” he announced.

GMR Group chairman GM Rao said Delhi airport’s current capacity to handle 62 million passengers per annum and 1.5 million tonnes of cargo makes it ideally suited to serve the growth of Indian aviation.

“The airport has the ability to expand to 109 million passengers per annum and 2.2 million tonnes of cargo,” he added.