Recently the TIMES OF INDIA has been carrying reports about the development of Nagpur especially in connection with the proposed multimodal international hub at the airport there (abbrev MIHAN).
This is touted as a Rs 5000 crore project involving may be 8000 acres. (Compare this with Rs 5000 crores for the modernisation of Mumbai and Delhi airports TOGETHER and Kochi airport's footprint of a measly 1300 acres). MIHAN is proposed to be made an SEZ (just as there is talk about the Mopa area) centred on aircraft mantenance and even construction. The interesting thing for us is the report "No parking takes new airlines to Nagpur". (8/7/05) . It seems there is a severe shortage of overnight parking bays for the aircraft of civilian airlines especially at Mumbai. As a result, airlines are being advised to make use of airports of non-metros (like Nagpur) for this purpose. In the process these airports get factored into the route maps of the airlines. Or else, they would have to fly empty to the metro from which they plan to originate and this would bleed the bottom lines esp of new entrants. Dabolim is half the distance to Mumbai as compared to Nagpur with attendant savings in time and money. If it was possible to do so, the new airlines would definitely make use of Dabolim as advised by the AAI re other non-metro airports such as Nagpur, Coimbatore and the like. But the Navy seems completely impervious to these considerations (while the state government which is hand-in-glove is blissfully oblivious of them).
