Committee on Infrastructure Development approved development of no-frill airports at Ajmer, Belgaum

The Expert Appraisal Committee on Infrastructure Development on 31 January 2015 approved the development of no-frill airports at Kishangarh, Ajmer in Rajasthan and Belgaum in Karnataka. The committee was constituted by Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.

However, committee did not approve Airport Authority of India's (AAI) proposal to have a greenfield airport at Holongi river plain in Arunachal Pradesh.

The committee viewed that the entire approach area of the proposed project falls in Holongi river plain and no construction is allowed in flood plain.

It also viewed that if these areas are washed away during floods, the airstrip will not be fit for operation.

Airport at Belgaum, Karnataka
• Currently, the Belgaum airport handles ATR-72 aircraft only. The area of the existing airport is 360.34 acres and additional land having 370 acres area has been provided for the expansion phase by the State government.
• The estimated cost of the project is 293.35 crore rupees. The airport is currently handling 13778 passengers annually and is expected to increase to 92590 passengers by 2022-23.
• The airport will be developed with a new runway and a terminal building to handle 200 peak hour passengers, apron, air traffic controller, runway end safety, fire fighting equipments, rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment plant.
• Earlier, AAI approached the Environment Ministry to modernise the existing Belgaum airport to facilitate operations of four flights of A-321 aircrafts per day. An MoU was signed between the Karnataka government and AAI for the modernization of Belgaum airport.

Airport at Kishangarh, Rajasthan
At Rajasthan's Kishangarh, the airport with 2152 meters long runway will be developed in 441.7 acres of land. It is aimed at giving air connectivity to the Ajmer, famous for Pushkar fair and dargah of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti.

The airport will be developed for operation of DASH-8Q 400 type of aircraft. Approximately five flights will operate in a single day.