25-year master plan for airports being developed by the Centre

In order to match the rate of air traffic growth in the country, the government is coming up with a 25-year master plan for the airports in India. Jayant Sinha, minister of state for civil aviation, stated that the airport development plans are being formulated as the volume of traffic in the country is on the rise. The Master Plan of development of cities has to be developed in the light of the mounting pressure on the top airports of the country. A recent study reveals that the structural capacity of the existing airports in the country will be breached in the next five years.

The minister stated that even if the country grows at 10%, the airport capacity will come under pressure. He also stated that the volume of air traffic is expected to double in the next 20-25 years. According to the master plan, the cities will have multiple airports and the agreements with the airport operators need to be revised and refined. This will provide them with the opportunity of operating brownfield airports as a bidding package. The master plan also involves scaling up the Airports Authority of India.

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu focussed on the need to enhance the security and safety in the aviation sector. According to him, it is necessary to ensure optimum safety of the passengers. In order to ensure this safety, stringent norms have to be adopted in the aviation sector.

 A study conducted by the CAPA Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation reveals that the airport system of the country will exceed the maximum structural capacity by the year 2022. Besides, as many as 10 aerodromes which are under the Airport Authority of India are operating beyond their maximum capacity. Other aerodromes, located in the top cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai will reach their maximum capacity in the next five years. According to the estimates made by CAPA, an investment of USD 45 billion is necessary to develop the infrastructure. The aviation industry has to come up with an additional capacity of handling around 500-600 more passengers at the airports by 2030. The 20-year forecast from International Air Transport Association (IATA) reveals that India will be the 3rd fastest growing market by 2036 and an additional 337 million passengers need to be tackled. In 2016, the number of passengers was 141 million, which is likely to grow more than twofold in the coming years. Evidently, it is necessary to upgrade the existing infrastructure.