The Indian government has approved the development of a new greenfield airport at Hirasar, as the existing Rajkot airport suffers from land constraint.

The project is estimated to cost Rs14 billion ($210 million), and will act as a capacity reliever to Rajkot. New Delhi notes that Rajkot airport "is severely land constrained," as the facility is located within the city and has only 236 acres of land to utilise.

"This airport (Rajkot) suffers from considerable capacity restraints due to the presence of residential and commercial buildings around it. Railway lines and state highways located around the airport on the eastern side also prohibits the extension of the runway. Thus there is no feasibility to expand the airport on city or airside, hence possibility of operating widebody aircraft at the existing airport location is ruled out," says the civil aviation ministry in a statement.

While the government has not provided any capacity or infrastructure guidance on Hirasar, it is likely that the airport will be able to accommodate widebody aircraft.

Cirium schedules data shows that Rajkot is connected to Delhi and Mumbai. In terms of seat capacity for February, Jet Airways is the largest operator, followed by Air India.

Hirasar is located approximately 30km northwest of Rajkot, and 191.3km southwest of Ahmedabad, the state capital of Gujarat state.

Source: Cirium Dashboard

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