New greenfield airports policy likely to be approved next week

New Delhi, Apr 9 (UNI) The Ministry of Civil Aviation today said the government is likely to come out with a policy for faster clearance of greenfield airport projects next week.

''A policy note to this effect is already before the Cabinet, which is likely to be cleared next week,'' Civil Aviation Joint Secretary K N Srivastava told reporters here on the sidelines of Aviation Summit organised by Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.

He said the policy will spell out various steps for streamlining the procedures for clearing the airport projects, which presently takes longer duration.

He said about 100 proposals of new airports are being considered by the Ministry and they are at various stages of finalisation.

Mentioning that the Vision 2020 on Civil Aviation would be unveiled soon, Mr Srivastava said that the government would be targeting to build 400 more airports in the country in the next 10-12 years, taking the total number of airports in the country to 500 from existing 127.

He said regulator of civil aviation sector would be put in place latest by October this year.

To mitigate the shortage of air traffic controllers, which is presently reckoned at 600, Mr Srivastava said and added that , a training institute would be set up in Hyderabad.

Mr Srivastava informed that the government was considering setting up of exclusive cargo airports and is also taking step for de-congesting the existing ones.

UNI MP SBA AS1918