The Hindu : National : Non-metro airports to act as secondary hubs

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Sunday, Jul 30, 2006

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National

Non-metro airports to act as secondary hubs

Staff Reporter

KOLKATA: Minister of State for Civil Aviation Praful Patel on Saturday said non-metro airports would act as secondary hubs to direct traffic to smaller, Tier III cities, setting up a kind of aviation grid.

The non-metro airports, being developed by the Airports Authority of India at a cost of Rs. 10,000 crore, were expected to be completed by 2008-09, he told presspersons after the inauguration of a circular railway connecting Kolkata to the airport. "Greenfield airports will also be allowed to come up, but only in places where there are no airports at present. For that reason, it is not likely to be viable in Kolkata."

The airports in Kolkata and Chennai must be modernised and expanded with their long-term needs in mind. "All the six major airports — the other four being Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad — should be looked at holistically and developed by 2010," he said. "There have been issues in the past, but, hopefully, the Government of West Bengal will take the right decision."

Apart from modern methods of surveillance, the system of biometric identification might be introduced soon to step up security in airport, Mr. Patel said. On the proposed merger between Air India and Indian, he said it was the biggest priority as it would utilise and optimise the resources of the two formidable carriers and make it the biggest airline in Asia.

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