• 11 Greenfield airports have already been operationalised

Government of India has accorded 'In-Principle' approval for setting up of 21 new Greenfield Airports namely- Mopa in Goa, Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg in Maharashtra, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamogga in Karnataka, Dabra (Gwalior) in Madhya Pradesh, Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar) in Uttar Pradesh, Dholera and Hirasar in Gujarat, Karaikal in Puducherry, Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Orvakal (Kurnool) in Andhra Pradesh, Durgapur in West Bengal, Pakyong in Sikkim, Kannur in Kerala and Hollongi (Itanagar) in Arunachal Pradesh across the country.

Out of these, 11 Greenfield airports viz. Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburagi, Orvakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar, Itanagar, Mopa and Shivamogga have been operationalised.

State Government of Tamil Nadu has submitted an application to Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) for grant of first stage clearance i.e. 'Site-Clearance' for development of a Greenfield airport at Parandur, Kancheepuram District, Tamil Nadu. As per GFA Policy, the proposal has been sent to Airports Authority of India (AAI), Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Ministry of Defence (MoD) for their comments. After completion of this consultation with stakeholders, the proposal is required to be placed before the Steering Committee on Greenfield Airports for their recommendation, with respect to award of Site Clearance.

As per the GFA Policy, 2008, the responsibility of implementation of airport projects including funding of the project, land acquisition, R&R etc rests with the concerned airport developer including the respective State Government (in case the State Government is the project proponent). The timeline for construction of airports depends upon various factors such as land acquisition, mandatory clearances, removal of obstacles, financial closure etc. by the respective airport developers.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen. (Dr) V. K. Singh (Retd) in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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YB/PS