The airport development programme in Northeast India will hit by the cut in the Airport Authority of India’s (AAI) budgetary support, stated a Parliamentary panel of Rajya Sabha. The department related parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture has in its recently submitted report stated that budgetary support in the form of grants-in-aid provided to AAI in annual plan 2013-14 is Rs 42 crore.
Out of the Rs 42 crore, Rs 32 crore has been earmarked for the project at Pakyong (Sikkim) in the North Eastern Region and the balance amount of Rs 10 crore for construction of new terminal building including apron at Tirupati airport. The Committee found that the AAI was allocated a budgetary support of Rs 280 crore for 2012-13 while it has been reduced to Rs 42 crore in 2013-14. Out of this, Rs 32 crore is exclusively for development works at airports in Pakyong and Tirupati.
The Committee was informed that AAI’s requirement for various projects under Grant-in-Aid Schemes is to the tune of Rs 460.21 crore. The Committee feels that such a drastic cut in budgetary support for the airport infrastructure developer of the country will definitely slow down the ongoing projects especially in North-Eastern Region.
There are 23 airports in the Northeast India region. Out of them, 12 are operational. Several non operational airports are expected to be developed by the 12th plan period. Guwahati airport is the ninth biggest airport in terms of traffic. The airport has 95 movements per day, which includes 42 scheduled departures and landing.
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