Air Transport

India’s government is seeking to open some of the country’s 300 unused airstrips to commercial flights in a bid to cope with rapid growth in the domestic air transport sector.

Civil aviation minister Praful Patel says in a statement that his ministry will soon be holding a conference with all of the country’s state governments on “developing some of the 300 airstrips across the country which are lying unused as of now”.

He says the aim is “to provide greater regional connectivity”, adding that the ministry is considering “bidding out the airstrips in blocks for development as it may not be feasible to do it individually”.

Patel says passenger traffic is expected to grow by 25% annually over the next 10 years which creates a need for “urgent and immediate growth in infrastructure”.

The government has been pushing hard for the development of air transport outside the major population centres to ease congestion at the busier airports such as those at Delhi and Mumbai.

State-owned Airports Authority of India currently manages more than 100 airports in the country.