SURAT: The master plan for the expansion of the Surat airport with two parallel runways has been shelved by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) due to non-availability of land required for the development.In the meeting held on February 23, 2018, between AAI chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra and Gujarat’s chief secretary J N Singh, the Surat Urban Development Authority (Suda) representative pointed out that the additional land requirement projected by AAI involves a huge area of private land and it will not be easy to acquire the private land in the current scenario. It suggested AAI to modify the proposed master plan keeping in mind the available land reserved by Suda However, now the AAI has dropped the proposed parallel runway and has decided to go ahead with the development of taxiway, cargo terminal, expansion of terminal building and parking bays, provided the state government allots 39 hectare land for the same.In the meeting, AAI’s executive director (planning) pointed out that it will not be possible to construct parallel runway in the land reserved by the state government for future development of the Surat airport due to various mandatory operational needs according to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines.According to the master plan prepared by AAI in 2016, there was a proposed plan to develop two parallel runways with the requirement of 1,000 hectare land and it was submitted to the Suda for incorporation in their development plan-2035. The revised master plan included extension of runway from 2,905 metre to 3,810 metre to achieve an overall passenger handling capacity of maximum 25-30 million per annum.According to the civic body’s plan, about 955 hectare land was reserved for development of Surat airport including the existing 317 hectare of the airport land.AAI had revised its plan for acquiring 39 hectare land for extension of the runway in the second phase from its original requirement of 63 hectare.During the meeting held on February 16, 2018, the AAI officials revised their plan for 39 hectare land requirement, but they are yet to submit the revised proposal for the same to the collector’s office. Moreover, the first application for 63 hectare land has been closed citing the presence of the underground ONGC pipeline.RTI activist Rajesh Modi said, “Now, it is time for the builders and shrimp farm owners to rejoice as their reserved land will soon be de-reserved. Even the AAI has shelved the two parallel runway projects after Suda raised concerns about the private land and long delay. This is the reason, AAI and state government are looking for alternative place to develop a bigger airport in Navsari.”

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