The Madhya Pradesh government has identified 10,000 acres of land spanning between Ujjain and Dewas that would be acquired for the construction of a new greenfield international airport. The ambitious project anticipated to surpass the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi aims to replace the existing Devi Ahilyabai Holkar Airport in Indore. The airport, located at the convergence of Dewas, Ujjain and Indore will consist of five runways.
Government Action
The Principal Secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy of the Madhya Pradesh government, Sanjay Kumar Shukla told a media agency that the chief minister of the state Mohan Yadav has asked the officials to expedite the land acquisition and development project. The official said that a feasible study revealed that building an international airport would be more of a cost-effective solution than acquiring the extensive 2,314 acres required for the expansion of the existing facilities.
Proposal for the Airport
The proposal to develop the new greenfield international airport was mooted after the Airports Authority of India (AAI) asked for a fresh acquisition of land for the expansion of the Devi Ahilyabai Airport and it was found that such an acquisition would cost more than developing and building an international airport itself. The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Mohan Yadav has asked to speed up the required process and once built, the new airport would trigger an economic boom in the entire region, Shukla said.
Features of the Airport
A 360 industrial ring around two hours’ drive from the proposed greenfield airport would also be built that would provide a further boost to the economy of the region, he said while adding that a pre-feasibility study for the green field airport has already been conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The Devi Ahilya airport in Indore is a customs airport and has an area of 750 acres. It has single runway and caters for 394 domestic flights per week.
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