For civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, removing the
elitist tag from air travel is the main agenda. That’s why the minister,
who hails from the Telugu Desam Party, would like to focus on creating
“no-frills airports”, removing all kinds of barriers for entry of more
new players, and a new policy governing bilaterals. In an interview with
FE’s Roudra Bhattacharya, Raju tells that privatising Air India at this
stage would not be possible as there would be no takers for it.
Excerpts:
What exactly is the idea behind the plan to build 200 low-cost airports in tier 2 and 3 cities?
This is part of our 100-day agenda. A policy on this would be announced by August. I would prefer calling them ‘no-frills’ airports, because there is nothing really low about the cost, runways cost the same whether you have a terminal building or not. We have more than 400 airstrips across the country, of which 90 are operational airports and about 65 have regular flights. So we require both long and short-term plans. In long-term, everybody wants something nice — that is ultimately where we want to be, but it cannot be achieved overnight. If you look at the existing infrastructure, Delhi is a premier city and it has a nice airport with world-class facilities.
In Mumbai, again the facilities are improving and the airport is doing well, but there is only one runway practically with 47 movements an hour and the world's best is about 60. So the gap for growth is little. Unless some other strategies are brought in by the time this gap is plugged, we will be choking a premier city of our country. India cannot afford to do that.
Read news in full 13/07/14 Roudra Bhattacharya/Financial Express
What exactly is the idea behind the plan to build 200 low-cost airports in tier 2 and 3 cities?
This is part of our 100-day agenda. A policy on this would be announced by August. I would prefer calling them ‘no-frills’ airports, because there is nothing really low about the cost, runways cost the same whether you have a terminal building or not. We have more than 400 airstrips across the country, of which 90 are operational airports and about 65 have regular flights. So we require both long and short-term plans. In long-term, everybody wants something nice — that is ultimately where we want to be, but it cannot be achieved overnight. If you look at the existing infrastructure, Delhi is a premier city and it has a nice airport with world-class facilities.
In Mumbai, again the facilities are improving and the airport is doing well, but there is only one runway practically with 47 movements an hour and the world's best is about 60. So the gap for growth is little. Unless some other strategies are brought in by the time this gap is plugged, we will be choking a premier city of our country. India cannot afford to do that.
Read news in full 13/07/14 Roudra Bhattacharya/Financial Express
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