In its April 22 edition, HERALD had a story titled "AAI plans futuristic airports in 18 cities" on the business page. In the expenditure plans for 5 airports (3 metro and 2 nonmetro) the average works out to Rs 127 cr each! The 2 nonmetro airports (Ahmedabad and Thiruvanantapuram) with which Goa competes in the traffic stats, themselves tote up figures of Rs 145 cr and 150 cr respectively!
The other airports listed are 13 in number and include places like Surat, Mangalore, and Khajuraho, but do not include Goa. Goa airport may be in some sort of limbo in airport planing because of Navy control. Incidentally, when the Vice Admiral gave an update about Dabolim in HERALD last week he is reported to have referred to a figure of Rs 30 cr spent on strengthenng the civilian infrastructure at Dabolim. This is a small fraction of the present plans for top Indian airports.
