Union Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh stated that there are three airstrips Faizabad, Moradabad and Meerut. He requested that give these airstrips to AAI and they will construct airports. The U.P. government does not want airports. Agra is an exception. Akhilesh does not want to give free land for airports, Ajit Singh said, adding that more airports would generate employment and spur growth in the state. If the Airports Authority of India got land for domestic airports in other eight cities and towns in U.P., it would have benefited the people of the state, the minister added. And after constant effort the airport has been haned over to AAI.
Development under low-cost airports
In an endeavour to provide air connectivity to different parts of India, development of low-cost airports is the most important component. Instructions have been issued to AAI to identify the most suitable low cost model for development of smaller airports and to develop airports in the smaller cities based on this mode.
Handing over to Airports Authority of India
Faizabad Airport is handed over by the government of Uttar Pradesh to Airports Authority of India to be developed as full-fledged airport along with three others by the approval of Uttar Pradesh cabinet. The government of Uttar Pradesh is providing extra land free of cost for the further expansion and for the construction of a terminal. The operations will be operated from 2014. The Uttar Pradesh government has issued formal orders allowing the landing and parking of private aircraft on the airstrip against a fee. According to the government order, any private aircraft can land by paying Rs 500. There will be no parking charges for the first two hours, after which Rs 200 will be charged per day. The government is giving this airstrip to private investors for their pilot training and aircraft maintenance engineering institutes. "The fresh government order for landing and parking is an extension of that project, because now the government will not have to bother much about activities like maintained, which will be taken care of by the institutes," said Swaroop. The procedure followed earlier to obtain permission for using the airstrip used to be long. The owner of the private aircraft had to contact the respective district magistrate who would further contact the directorate which would take the measures required for landing of the aircraft.
Projected length
The state government has decided to acquire more than 280 acres of land around the airstrip and widen it to allow landing of bigger aircraft. Projected airstrip needs to have a width of 45 meters and a length of 2.5 km.
