| Upgrade
work on Chennai, Kolkata airports to start by March 2008
15 November 2007
Work on upgrading
the Chennai and Kolkata airports would begin not later than March next year, according
to minister for civil aviation, Praful Patel. According to Patel, the projects
had already been approved by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which will
also execute the work. Patel
also announced that international airlines would be permitted to land at the Calicut
airport from next year. In this regard he mentioned that there had been a 100
per cent increase in the number of international and domestic airlines operating
to and from Kerala, since 2004. Talking
about the development of airport infrastructure, Patel said that a policy on Greenfield
airports would be in place by early next year. He said that the ministry of civil
aviation was considering a proposal to allow the building of more than one airport
in a particular region. Currently, government policy does not allow an international
airport to come up within 150 km of an existing one. According
to Patel, the ministry was reconsidering this rule as it was felt that it hampered
growth of the aviation industry.  On
the issue of allowing new airlines to start operations, Patel said that the ministry
had no problems in permitting new entrants but would scrutinise the business plans
and financial health of promoters before according approvals.
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