The India Government plans to do away with the mandatory approval of the Central Government for setting up greenfield airports. An inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) set up to recommend principles, guidelines and licensing conditions for greenfield airports has recommended that mandatory approval for such airports not be required except in special cases.

``If a greenfield airport is to come up within a 150 km radius of an existing airport or the proposed airport would be in a defence airfield then it would still need to be cleared by the Centre. Otherwise the promoter can approach the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the greenfield airport would be operational after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gives the licence,” a senior Government official said.

At present any proposal for setting up of an airport requires to be cleared by the Union Cabinet. The draft proposals would need to be cleared by the Committee on Infrastructure and the Union Cabinet before it can be implemented.

The work connected with providing air traffic services, security, customs and immigration among others at these greenfield airports would continue to be carried out by Central agencies.

An official statement issued on Tuesday adds that State Governments wanting to set up greenfield airports can do so themselves, through any of their designated entities or through a joint venture company. The draft proposals adds that the State Government could consider granting land (concessional or otherwise), real estate development rights, airport connectivity and fiscal concessions to such an airport company. The selection of a private party is to be done through competitive bidding, the committee has said.

The policy has suggested that the preferred route for development of greenfield airports by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) be through the public-private-partnership route and be substantially financed through PPP concessions. “Land for such airports will have to be provided by AAI and the concessions for development of greenfield airports would be awarded through open competitive bidding based on model bidding documents. Where it is not feasible to follow the PPP route, AAI could set up greenfield airports by itself, on a case to case basis,” the draft policy adds.