The Surat airport will soon have a night landing facility. Rs 2 crore Instrument Landing System imported from Germany for making night landing facility possible at the Surat airport has been arrived. Setting up the system will take less than two months.

Once operational the night landing system will facilitate smooth operations during fog and rainy atmosphere too at the airport. Modern terminal building, Air Traffic Control tower, Fire station, DVAR systems are already activated at the airport. Runway of the Surat airport has been recently expanded to 2250 metre(7382 ft).

Surat is India’s official fastest growing city with an annualized GDP growth rate of 11.5 per cent over the past seven fiscal years. Surat is also India’s richest city with an average annual household income of Rs0.45 million or over $11,000. Between 2004-5 and 2007-8 Surat’s middle class doubled in size and its poor reduced by a third.

Eight out of ten diamonds sold in the world are polished in Surat. It is a major production centre for synthetic textiles in India. Neighboring Hazira boasts of an impressive list of corporate big-wigs such as Reliance, Essar, Larsen and Toubro, Shell, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, just to name a few.

However Surat got it’s airport after more than a decade long struggle. Facilities at Surat airport are not up to the mark though ample possibilities of traffic. Things at the airport are developing at very slow pace in this India’s fastest growing city.