NEW DELHI: Come December and the Hindon air force station in Ghaziabad will become the second airport for Delhi as all flights operating on Delhi routes under the government’s regional connectivity scheme (RCS) will land and depart from the air force station.
Sources in the civil aviation ministry said that Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) has accepted the government’s request for the same on the condition that this would be a temporary arrangement.
The decision has been taken in view of the fact that the Indira Gandhi International airport is already congested and major expansion work is being carried out there. Sources added that the ministry is soon going to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Delhi airport and the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the purpose and once the MoU is done, the AAI will develop passenger facilities at Hindon air base, which is less than 150 km from Delhi.
A senior ministry official, who did not wish to be named, said, “We have almost finalised an MoU between DIAL, MOCA and AAI as DIAL has agreed to our proposal of using Hindon air base as a back up for Delhi.” The MoU is likely to be signed before November 5, when the ministry is going to announce new routes under its RCS Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN). In August, the ministry had requested DIAL to allow Hindon to host regional flights but DAIL had some reservations about the proposal. According to the agreement between the Central government and private concessionaire when Delhi airport was privatised, commercial flights are not allowed to operate from any airport within a 150-km radius of the Delhi airport without the permission of DIAL.
The ministry official added that the decision has now been finalised while taking care of DIAL’s interests. The official said, “This is a temporary arrangement and since DIAL knows that it cannot handle extra flights at Delhi airport before expansion, it has agreed to the use of Hindon. Though once the expansion is complete, these flights will shift back to Delhi airport,” the official added.
The Hindon airport is a single-runway base and home to Boeing C-17 Globemaster aircraft that form the backbone of the heavy airlift division of the Indian Air Force. The expansion plan of Delhi airport entails a brand new terminal, new runway, elevated taxiway and an internal rail system. Since T1 is operating beyond its capacity, the expansion will begin from there and cover the airside, terminal building and city side. The plan will be implemented in three modular phases- phase 3A (2018-21), 3 B (2021-25) and Phase 4 (2026 onwards).
The departure Terminal, T1D and arriving Terminal, T1 C will be merged into one and expanded to accommodate 40 million passengers per annum. Currently, the passenger capacity of T1 is 20 million passengers and of T3 is 34 million passengers. With the master plan, T3’s passenger capacity will be increased to 45 million passengers. The aircraft handling capacity of the airport will also be increased from the current 73 aircrafts per hour to 96 aircrafts per hour. The masterplan had also proposed aerobridge operations at the modified T1 with 22 aerobridges.