The Indian Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Shri G.M. Siddeshwara informed several days ago that the Government has accorded site clearance for the Greenfield international airport project at Dholera at Ahmedabad in Gujarat, which is being developed by the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board.

Further, the Taj International Greenfield airport project proposed at Hirangoan, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh is presently under the preliminary scrutiny of the Government. The airport is expected to be developed on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis.

Airport authority of India (AAI) has recently upgraded Bhopal, Indore and Raipur airports to international standards and the Government has initiated the process of declaring these airports as international airports.

Moreover, the Government of India has granted in-principle approval for development of the Greenfield airport projects as international airports with estimated project costs as under:

• Mopa airport in Goa: Rs30 billion (US$500 million). Ammann and Whitney from USA prepared the Master Plan and the Feasibility Study.  Financial and Technical advisors were announced in March 2013.

• Kannur airport in Kerala: Rs18 Billion (US$300 million). The airport is expected to be operational by 2015. The department is hoping to conclude test flights by December 2015 and commercial flight operations commencing by April 2016.

• Navi Mumbai airport in Maharashtra: Rs145 billion (US$2,416 million). The airport will be developed on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis. The work will be carried out in two phases.

• Shirdi airport in Maharashtra: Rs3 billion (US$50 million). The airport, spread over 400 hectares, will be located at Kakdi village about 14 km Southwest of Shirdi.

• Kushinagar airport in Uttar Pradesh: Rs3.55 billion (US$59.1 million). This project will be developed on a design, build, finance, operation and maintenance (DBFOM) basis.