 |
| Fly out: Scene at Ahmadabad Airport |
On Monday, these firms submitted bids for the
proposed airports that can handle mid-sized airplanes at Palitana, Ambaji,
Dwarka and Ankleshwar. Officials from state aviation department told Indian
Express that this was a technical bidding and by February 15, the
evaluation report will be released which will pave the way for financial
bidding.
At present, the state has 17 airports (excluding
the two at Daman and Diu), which makes it having the largest number of operational
airports in the country.
“Gujarat is going to be the first state to start
developing four airports at one go. The purpose is to boost religious tourism
as well as providing infrastructure for the industries,” said Ajay Chauhan,
director of state’s civil aviation department.
The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has already
cleared the techno-economic feasibility report for the airfields located at
Dwarka in Jamnagar and Ambaji in Banaskantha district, both famous destinations
for Hindu pilgrims, Palitana in Bhavnagar district known for Jain pilgrimage
and Ankleshwar, an industrial hub in South Gujarat.
According to state aviation officials, the
construction of the airports will be taken up in phases. In the first phase
spanning two years, the construction of the airports is likely to be completed
to make them operational. Afterwards, the airports may be upgraded depending on
the requirement.
In a bid to boost the aviation industry in the
state, the state government slashed the tax levied on air turbine fuel from 30%
to 5% in 2011 to attract airlines for starting intra-state air-connectivity.
There is also a budgetary provision of Rs 12.70 crore for the development of
airports in the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment