The development of greenfield airports in India has achieved significant milestones in recent times. These airports have become the driving force of development in urban areas, attracting and facilitating city-side development, and positively impacting the economy, making their timely completion more crucial. Around 21 greenfield airports have received in-principle approval under the Greenfield Airport Policy. Of these, 11 airports have been operationalised. Key among these areOrvakal (Kurnool) airport, Sindhudurg airport, Kushinagar airport, Itanagar airport, Mopa airport and Shivamogga airport. Alwar in Rajasthan, Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh and Mandi in Himachal Pradesh – have been granted first-stage clearance for construction. A capital outlay of approximately Rs 980 billion has been made by the Airports Authority of India and the other airport developers for the related development for the next five years. Moreover, the budgetary allocation of Rs 31.13 billion to the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for 2023-24 is a promising support for the successful completion of these projects.
Noida International Airport
The Noida International Airport was envisioned by the Uttar Pradesh government to serve western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and the National Capital Region. It is the second international airport in the region after Indira Gandhi International Airport and has an estimated cost of Rs 296 billion. It is planned to have six runways and four terminal buildings with a capacity to cater to 225 million passengers annually and handle 10 million tonnes (mt) of cargo by 2070. Upon receiving approval in 2020, the construction work on the project was started in November 2021 and has witnessed fast-paced development since then. The construction of the project has been undertaken by TATA Projects Limited. The western part of the airport will incorporate retail and commercial development while the eastern part will be for air-side facilities, cargo and logistics. Construction activities like site preparation and construction of boundary walls were completed in 2022, while substructure works of the passenger terminal and runway are ongoing. In recent developments, over 2,600 workers have been deployed on the project, along with more than 400 construction machineries on site. The work for the first phase is on track for expected completion in 2024, which will cater to 12 million passengers per annum. While land acquisition of Phase 2 is under way, Phases 3 and 4 have also received approval as of December 2022.
Furthermore, Air India SATS Airport Services Private Limited is planning a multimodal cargo hub. An integrated air cargo, warehousing and logistics facility will be developed over 80 acres of land with an initial annual capacity of over 0.2 mt, which could expand to 2 mt annually. The project aims to leverage warehouse management system, material handling system, automation, and tracing solutions to enhance operations and enable end-to-end visibility.
However, the project faces a few challenges in land acquisition, integration of technology, and implementation of machine learning-based applications. To improve airport operations, Siemens and Smiths Detection will provide the baggage handling system and 3-D-enabled screening respectively. There are also plans to connect the airport with high speed rail and metro in the future, catering to the large catchment area.
Mopa International Airport
The Mopa International Airport is an operational mega project developed by GMR Infrastructure Limited on a design-build-finance-operate-transfer (DBFOT) basis in public-private partnership (PPP) mode. It involves the development of airside and landside infrastructure under a concession period of 40 years. The airport is designed to handle 13.1 million passengers per annum (mppa) at a cost of Rs 33 billion. The project received approval from the central government in 2000 while land acquisition procedures were completed in 2002. The airport was finally inaugurated 20 years later in December 2022, and its first flight operations began from Hyderabad on January 5, 2023. Some of the major challenges that the project faced are increase in cost due to delays in judicial proceedings and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Further, judicial stay orders related to environmental issues resulted in slow progress.
The growth of this airport presents a significant opportunity for regional air travel, connecting Indian cities and enhancing worldwide connectivity to regions including the Middle East and Europe. The airport has a holistic infrastructure with sustainable features like a solar power plant, LED lights on the runway, green buildings, and rainwater harvesting with recycling facilities. It also has overnight parking facilities for aircraft, making it a potential base for domestic airlines to build a robust network in Goa.
Navi Mumbai International Airport
The Navi Mumbai International Airport is another mega greenfield project being developed on a DBFOT basis under the PPP model at an estimated cost of Rs 160 billion. Adani Enterprises is the concessionaire of the project while it is being implemented by Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAPL). NMIAPL is a special purpose vehicle with equity participation from Adani Airport Holdings Limited and the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO) in a 74:26 ratio. NMIAPL achieved financial closure for the project in March 2022. There is a debt requirement of Rs 128 billion for the project underwritten by the State Bank of India. The work on the first phase of the airport is expected to be completed by end 2024 with a capacity of 20 mppa and 0.8 mt per annum. On full completion, the airport will have the capacity to handle 60 mppa and 1.5 mt of cargo per annum.
The airport is expected to add value to the region with generation of over 0.4 million direct and indirect jobs. This would push the boundaries for the real estate sector in the region and its peripheral areas as the migration to Navi Mumbai continues to increase. Its development would raise the capital prices of the city and accelerate economic growth with stronger regional connectivity. The large population residing in affordable housing in the town of Panvel, 4 km from the airport, will also have higher employment opportunities.
Future potential
Going forward, India’s civil aviation sector is expected to attract around 400 million passengers over the next 7-10 years according to MoCA. The industry has already reached 95 per cent of pre-Covid passenger traffic. It reportedly supports 5 per cent of India’s GDP and 1.4 per cent of the world GDP. With increased demand for air travel in many cities, passenger and cargo traffic have reached an unprecedented high. As a result, the development of greenfield airport projects by the government and developers has become necessary. Even the remote regions of north-eastern India are beginning to see related development. Many airports in the region are in the pipeline – at Tezu in Arunachal Pradesh, Dibrugarh, Guwahati, and Silchar in Assam, Imphal in Manipur, Barapani in Meghalaya and Agartala airport in Tripura. Some of the other big-ticket upcoming greenfield airport projects (with their estimated cost) are at Parandur in Chennai (Rs 200 billion), Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Rs 103.59 billion), Chiethu in Nagaland (Rs 88.7 billion), Bhogapuram in Andhra Pradesh (Rs 42.09 billion) and Sabarimala in Kerala (Rs 39 billion), among others.