Ahmedabad

According to Bloomberg TV18 report quoting sources, Government of India is mulling five no-frills airports in Andhra and one in Gujarat.

No-frills airports are small airports with rudimentary facilities, in order to bring down the cost of flying. Such airports will be a world apart from the swanky ones at Delhi and Mumbai. As per a blueprint being prepared by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), these airports, which will be located in small towns, will lack conveyor belts, arrival lounges and even air-conditioning. Luggage will have to be checked in manually.

One air traffic control (ATC) tower will cater to a number of such airports. The plan is to keep the cost of building and operating these airports to a minimum. This mean the security will be taken care by police personnel from the respective states and harnessing solar energy to power the airports. Such airport would not require full-fledged ATC since there won’t be so many flights. The cost, with such initiatives, is expected to be very low and are estimated to come up for as low as Rs 50 crore for every airport. These airports will be built in the form of modules, which means a block can be added once there is increase in demand.